Left Us 4 Dead
by Breakingthehabit12
Summary: Dave and his friends, or new family, must survive the zombie apocalypse. Along the way he meets new people to add to the family and new people who try to tear it apart. First fanfic. Please review!
1. Chapter 1

Dave awoke with his heart beating loudly in his ears. His eyes rolled over to his clock that said 3:00 am. It was Saturday.

"Why am Ah up so early?"

Normally when Dave couldn't sleep, it was because something bad was going to happen. He could feel it in his bones. With a quiet growl, deep in his throat, he turned the television on.

Static.

Dave flipped through some more channels only to be greeted with more static.

"What the hell is goin' on?" he mumbled, his southern accent heavily noticeable.

Dave was only 22, about to be 23, with an amazing face that showed he was young. Only a few scars gave him character. All and all though, he had an almost flawless face. Green eyes, slightly covered by his blackish brown hair, looked out the window. Everything seemed normal.

He jumped only a bit when his phone rang. It rang the ringtone that was for his best friend, who only called when she was scared or needed her car fixed, for Dave was a mechanic.

"What?" Dave asked, sleep heavy in his voice.

"David, its Willow. Get to my place now, I'll explain everything later."

"Why do Ah have ta tell ya this all the time, call me Dave, not David…"

"Why do I have to tell you to stop with all your fucking complaining? Just get your ass over here now." Yelled his friend, her voice was followed by the click of her hanging up.

Dave tossed his phone onto his pillow, followed by cracking his spine a bit. He then got up and walked over to his closet. Pulling on his favorite black T-shirt, with a zombie's hand on it and his dark blue, almost black, jeans, Dave began to fully wake up. Walking back to his bed to get his phone, he also put on his black hat with a random silver 85 on the front. He always made a joke about how 8-5 equals 3, which so happened to be his favorite number. He was never good at jokes.

Grabbing his keys and his navy blue hoodie, he walked out to the garage area of the apartment building and went to get on his black dirt bike. He was use to being called an interesting person, because everyone around his home was an uptight kind of person who hated dirt and 'hicks' like him.

The ride to Willow's house didn't take very long, but long enough for Dave to think about his friend. Willow was a mysterious person. She had chocolate-brown eyes that compared to Dave's deadly green ones would make any guy fall head over heels in love with her any guy except for Dave. He didn't like her like that because he felt like an older brother to her and she liked being a little sister to him. Her red slash brown hair reminded him of chocolate as well. Everything about her was chocolate, everything but her skin color. She was one of the palest people that he had ever met.

Even though Willow and Dave have known each other since third grade, he never knew her last name. She never told anyone. He never told his as well, but somehow she found out.

Finally making it to her house, Dave remembered that she sounded worried on the phone so he ran up her front porch stairs. Before he could even knockWillow opened the door.

"David you're here! Thank goodness."

"Really? Ah thought Ah was still at my house, sleepin'."

Willow rolled her eyes while she let him into her home, for like the thousandth time. The house was just as mysterious as her.

What was really weird was that there were three people sitting in her living room. Dave noticed that he has never seen any of these people before.

"Guys, this is my friend-"

"David Ross! Pleasure to meet you, I am Willow's brother. She has told us all about you." A man exclaimed, cutting Willow's sentence short.

"Sorry David, that's my brother Eric. He's very….jumpy sometimes." Willow whispered.

"Ooooh, I'm Bree, their cousin!" cheered another girl with dark, cropped, hair that had pink highlights in it.

"Okay, not that it ain't nice ta meet'cha all, but why am Ah here?" questioned Dave.

"You haven't heard?" asked the last person on the couch. He flipped his long blonde hair out of his face.

"Didn't hear what?" confusion was dripping from the southerner's voice.

"There is a virus that is spreading around the country. It started in Florida and it is now here in Georgia." Eric explained.

"People who become sick with this virus forget who they are and they change. Once hey change the turn on the non-infected and try to eat them. Once you are bitten there is no saving you." Bree continued Eric's story.

Dave stared at the floor thinking.

"This…shit, is a lot like the game on your shirt." Willow added.

Looking at his shirt and seeing the zombie hand in the center, Dave's eyes grew wide.

"Zero still thinks the infected are real people though." Bree mumbled, glaring at the man on the couch.

'Who the hell names their kid Zero?' Dave thought to himself.

"Well, have ya guys seen any of 'em?" Dave asked aloud.

"….Naw." Zero said with a smirk, as he mocked Dave's accent.

Zero got up and went to the kitchen, unable to see Dave's death glare or hear his growl.

"Don't worry about him David; he just thinks you and I are going out or something. I mean that's just gross, right?" Willow whispered to her friend.

"Yea that is gro-… wait what?"

"Shhhh… go to bed David."

As Willow walked away, Dave stuck his tongue out at her. Sadly, she didn't see a thing.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning everyone awoke to the sound of a bone chilling scream. It was from Bree's room.

Taking two stairs at a time, Willow made it to the youngest survivor first, opening the door just in time to see an infected, which was finished climbing in the window, grab Bree and bite her shoulder. Bree's screams only grew louder.

Suddenly a loud gunshot drowned out Bree and Willow, who didn't even notice she had yelled out for Bree. When Willow turned around she saw Eric, his glasses askew with a Desert Eagle in this hand. Using his free hand to run through his short brown hair he closed his eyes and sighed.

They both looked over at Bree sitting on the floor, half awake, crying. The zombie next to her had blood pouring out of its chest onto the floor. Bree's blood was also mixing with it.

"What happened?" Zero asked when he came running into the room with Dave right behind him.

"Holy shit…,"whispered Dave.

Willow didn't move or respond; she only walked over to Bree and sat on the side next to her that wasn't taken by a dead, dead guy.

"Willow…. I-I'm sorry….. I l-left the window o-open last n-night….," Bree tried to apologize through tears.

"Shhh… it's okay. Now you don't have to live in the shitty world we are part of anymore."

Bree smiled which caused Willow to as well. Slowly the smile on the younger of the two; Bree was 19 and Willow is a young 22; turned into a blank expression. Her eyes went from hazel to an all glowing red. Her fingers turned into knife like claws, her hair color faded to white and it grew even longer to hide her face. Her skin suddenly turned grayish. As Willow stood up and backed away, Bree started to sob.

"Eric…. hand me the gun….,"Willow hissed.

Eric paused as he thought what he was told over in his mind.

"But… she's family."

Bree stopped crying and began to growl.

"Guys jus' shoot 'er" Dave ordered quietly.

"The two siblings started to argue in whispers, but soon their whispers grew louder. Bree grew angrier, and Dave's and Zero's fear began to grow as well.

Zero groaned and walked over to Eric, grabbing the gun out of the taller man's grasp, he aimed the pistol at Bree's head.

"Nooo," Eric yelled as he tackled Zero.

Eric was a little too late, as the bullet was shot. But, it just barely missed Bree's face and instead it went into her arm. It had no effect except it made her growls turn into a make your ears bleed screech.

Everyone froze; fear on their faces was a lot more noticeable. Eric was on top of Zero's back, Willow stood to the side hands over her mouth, and Dave stood in the doorway; still reaching out to grab Eric before h did something stupid.

Bree stood up and started to run at the non-infected. Willow was the first to react as she cursed under her breath and ran. Zero pushed Eric off of him and ran too. Eric was in such a panic that he forgot how to work his legs to stand up. Dave just stood in there, still frozen with fear. His brain unable to work properly, he just stood there. Eric saw and scooped up the pistol that Zero left behind.

One bullet. Bree was still running. Two more bullets were fired. Eric panicked when she still didn't die. He kept on firing, most of the bullets missed Bree completely, but the ones that hit her had no effect on her.

Dave was brought back to reality when he heard a gun being shot. Looking at the figure running at him, his face lost all of its color, yet he still could not move.

Suddenly one last bullet was shot and Bree fell to the floor right at Dave's feet. Looking down at the body Dave's breathing went back to normal, slowly.

"Uhhh, thanks Eric." that was all Dave could think about saying.

"Wasn't me."

Hearing Eric's response made the mechanic look behind him only to see Willow. She had a shotgun in her hands, smoke flowing out of the barrel.

Zero walked up behind her.

"Nice shot." He mumbled.

"Thanks." She breathed.

Walking over to Bree's dead body, Zero examined the corpse. When he was done staring, he tapped her leg with his foot.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Ah say we get outta here." Dave suggested.

"AH…. Don't care what you have to say." Zero growled.

The two glared at each other, slowly Dave's frown became as smirk as he flipped Zero off without a word. Zero only grew angrier.

"Girls, girls… your both pretty now lets just pack up and find an evac station." Willow said with a smile.

"Only if Ah don' have ta share my bike with lady hair over here." Dave laughed as he pointed at Zero, who was thinking about killing a hick instead of zombies today.

Even Eric laughed at that along with Willow and Dave.

Well, for the most part, they laughed as much as they could without feeling awkward since they felt like it was wrong to laugh after Bree died.

Eric began to walk around the room as he looked at pictures on the walls. He chuckled at the picture of Willow wearing Dave's hat, and Dave trying to get it back. That was in high school. The same year Willow met Zero and fell in love with him. There was a picture of Zero on the wall too. It was one of the school pictures that allowed you to get your name on it if you paid extra.

Dave was also thinking about the past. When he was younger he remembered always having a bad dream where he was hit by a car. That said dream caused him to have anger issues. No one knew it but he still had that same dream every night. As long as no one made him angry, everything would be okay.

Everything that wasn't ruined already, thanks to the zombies.


	3. Chapter 3

"Ready" Eric asked, fear of leaving well known on his face.

"Ah am." Dave said with excitement.

"AH….am." Zero mocked.

Willow rolled her eyes while Dave glared at Zero.

Eric had grabbed a small machine gun from Willow's gun collection, along with a bottle of pain pills. Zero grabbed a baseball bat and a first aid kit. Willow gave her shotgun to Dave with a disgusted look on her face and took two handguns instead. Dave also picked up a defib unit, in case they needed to revive someone.

"Why don't we use that on Bree?" Eric asked, pointing at the defib unit with hope in his eyes.

"Ya, lets bring back a zombie….," Dave mumbled.

"Dave, shut up." Willow hissed at him.

He simply put his hand in front of his chest to say he gave up or to protect himself. Willow pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

'God, he's so stupid.' Zero thought.

Eric had decided that they should pack food and clothes. Willow got the food while Eric got clothes, blankets, coats, etc. Dave and Zero sat on the opposite sides of the room. Not looking at each other, of course

After a few minutes, Dave's eyes began to wander. They widened when he saw Willow's guitar in the other corner on Zero's side of the room. He began to smile as he got up and walked over to it.

"Awe, baby hick is gonna play me a song." Zero said as Dave picked up the instrument.

"Why do ya hate me so much?"

"You suck."

"So do you then."

Zero snorted while Dave walked back over to his 'seat' and strummed the strings on the guitar a few times.

The mechanic's fingers began to play a quiet melody on the strings. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he started to sing.

"What hurts the most, is bein' so close, and havin' so much ta say, and watchin' yew walk away…., and never knowin', what could've been, and not seein' that lovin' yew, is what Ah was tryin' ta do…"

Willow had secretly walked back into the room to see Dave singing one of her favorite songs. She couldn't help but smile.

Zero pretended to cough so that Dave would shut up. It worked. After glaring at the blonde, Dave saw Willow and blushed when she started clapping. Zero pouted.

"That was so good David!" Willow exclaimed.

"Naw man, Ah was jus' bored so don't try ta say that Ah can sing." Dave mumbled with his cheeks red.

"Better listen to the hick, Willow, he sucks so don't pretend to make him feel good about himself." Zero said.

Dave glared as Willow started to yell at Zero.

"Just leave him alone, he's my best friend."

"So, I don't give a rat's ass about him."

Dave joined in with a mumbled, "Guys just stop please."

"No, I'm tired of the way she likes you more than me!" Zero yelled.

"Well when you act like a jealous piece of shit, I'm going to like someone more than you, Zero!" Willow screamed.

"You're a crazy bitch!" Zero hollered as he grabbed Willow's shoulders and pushed her onto the floor.

Dave's blood began to boil with rage gnawing at his brain. The only thing on his mind was static, much like his TV back at his house. What he did next, he didn't plan, it just happened from the anger towards the taller man for hurting his friend. His grip on the guitar grew tighter as he let out a loud growl.

Standing up, the southerner lifted the 'weapon' over his head, and with the satisfaction of seeing fear in Zero's face, he brought it down on the other man's skull. The sound of bone cracking awoke Dave from his angered state. His face went from anger to fear as he realized what he did.

Eric came running down the stairs right at that moment.

"I heard yelling, what's goin-"

It took Eric a minute to realize what happened before he got down the stairs. Willow sat on the floor, face frozen in a blank stare. Zero was on the floor, blood pouring from his head. No doubt that he was dead. Eric finally looked at Dave. Still holding the bloody guitar, his face had no color to it. He looked like he was about to hurl.

"Eric…. leave him alone…" Willow tried to say normally.

"Dave, what did you do?!" Eric questioned, ignoring his sister.

Dave never responded. He just stood there, as if he was waiting for that puke that Eric thought would come. At first Eric jumped when Dave dropped the instrument next to Zero's body, but he jumped even more when Dave bent over and threw up right by Willow's couch.

"Ah didn't mean ta!" Dave tried to say while he puked.

"He was my best friend!" Eric yelled as he grabbed a fistful of Dave's hair and pulled him to a standing position.

Dave could only cough while Willow demanded that Eric leave her friend alone. Eric only ignored his sister again.

Punching Dave right in face made Willow scream at her brother even more. Eric let go of Dave letting the southerner fall to the floor.

"Ah outta kill yew too" Dave mumbled, blood pouring out of his nose.

That earned a kick the face.

Willow screamed louder than ever.

"Willow just shut up!" Eric yelled, turning to see the girl pointing at the window.

A huge horde of infected were running towards the house, the survivors didn't realize that their yelling and all of the blood everywhere alerted the zombies.

"Fuck me….." that was all Dave could mumble before he blacked out.

'Shit, Eric help me get him out of here. Please!" Willow ordered as she tried to carry Dave.

Eric looked towards his teammates then to the horded. He sighed then went over and moved Willow out of the way.

"Go get the supplies, I'll get Dave."

The two managed to get every bag of food, weapons, ammo, medical items, attire, and everything in between, just as the infected reached the house. Luckily, Zero's human flesh distracted the zombies long enough for the survivors to escape.


	4. Chapter 4

A few days passed since the drama at Willow's house. The group of survivors went from five to three in a matter of twelve hour or more. With one of the three unconscious, staying alive seemed hopeless.

Eric had Dave in his arms, bridal style, while Willow carried all the bags of supplies. Every once and a while Eric would look down at Dave and growl, followed by clawing at the man's arm. Willow never noticed Eric's actions or that his actions soon caused Dave's arm to bleed.

"Eric?" Willow whispered, breaking the silence.

"Hmm?"

"I want to thank you, for saving Dave."

"You love him."

"What? He's my best friend.

"Who you love."

"Eric, I love him as a friend."

"Whatever."

The two stopped talking until a few more miles of walking, lead them to a gas station. Once they got closer they noticed that the door was broken and that the inside of the store was a mess.

"I guess people freaked when the infection hit town." Eric mumbled.

Luckily there were no zombies inside, but there wasn't any supplies that could help them survive. The two decided to set up a small camp, inside the small store. Laying Dave down on a blanket, Eric sighed.

"Man, I'm really sorry for what I did." Eric whispered to Dave, acting like he would be able to hear him.

"I was just so angry. I guess I let my anger control me like you did when you got mad at Zero."

Willow walked by the two men, sorrow all over her face as she listened to her brother talk to her friend.

"I just wish you could hear me."

Suddenly, the sound of someone walking outside startled Eric.

"Eric come on; let's go see what that was." Willow whispered.

Grabbing their weapons, the two walked towards the front doors. Once by the door they noticed a shadow of a person. The person was holding a weapon.

"Either that's a human, or zombies can use weapons. If so fuck this shit and kill me now." Willow joked.

Looking around the corner they saw a man, with short, brown hair, glasses, and he had a black jacket, that was really fancy, on.

"Hello? Anyone here?" the man yelled out.

"Who are you?" Eric called out.

The man walked to the door. He put his hands in the air to show that he meant no harm.

"Look I'm just a normal guy trying to stay alive."

"Why should we trust you?" Willow asked.

"Well maybe I can help you guys along the way. I do know that there is an evac station in Atlanta."

The two siblings thought it over in their heads. Looking at each other, they slowly nodded.

"Alright, get in here before any infected see us." Eric ordered.

The three walked inside, Willow leading the way, Eric in the middle, and the newcomer behind them all. The man's gaze went around the entire place, once it landed on Dave, his hazel eyes grew wide.

"Oh my God, what happened to him?"

"Why should we tell you if you won't tell us your name?" Eric growled.

"Because, he's my brother!"

"Wait you're Dave's brother?" Willow asked.

The man nodded. Willow looked at Dave then to Eric.

"He told me about you. Dave said that you were not to be trusted."

"Look lady, that was before all of this zombie shit."

Suddenly they heard coughing from the corner of the room. All eyes went to Dave, who was spitting out blood.

"David! Thank God, we thought you were dead!" Willow cheered.

"Ugh, my head. Wait….Mitch?" Dave mumbled, rubbing his forehead.

All eyes went to this so called Mitch.

"Yeah Dave. It's me." Mitch whispered.

"How are ya alive?"

"Do you deny my badass awesomeness?"

"Heh, naw, even though Ah am the badass."

Willow and Eric just stood there while the two men talked.

"So what happened to yur country accent?" Dave asked.

"I've lived in the city for a long time Dave." Mitch said, turning serious.

Dave rolled his eyes with a smirk on his face.

"Whoa, wait. You told me not to trust him." Willow said, looking at Dave.

"Well, that was in…. yeah fifth grade Willow." Dave said, glaring at his friend.

Normally it didn't take much to get Dave angry, but when he talked to Willow, she never caused him to lose his good mood. So this angered look she received, startled Willow.

"Okay, I'm going to go take first watch." Eric suggested, trying to get away from the awkwardness.

"Oh, hey Eric." Dave said in a sweet voice.

"Yea?"

"Go fuck yourself."

Mitch had to fight back a laugh. Since he didn't get to see his younger brother in over ten years or more, he never got to see the serious side of Dave. Willow only glared at the two brothers. She began to realize that they were so different.

"If you guys are brothers, then why are you so different, hmm?"

"Dave and I have the same dad but a different mom." Mitch explained.

"Yeah, my ma is jus' like me, and Mitch got more of our dad." Dave added.

"Uhhh, okay I'm so confused." Willow whispered.

After a few hours, everyone got to know Mitch more and the new member got to know everyone else more as well. Even though Dave trusted his brother, Willow just thought he was bad news. Eric did to, but he didn't show it because he wanted to be friends with Dave again.

At one point, around nine according to Mitch's watch, the group decided to head out to find a better place to stay the night. Following a map that Eric brought along, they managed to find an abandoned hotel. By the looks of it, the building was an evac station. Sadly everything and everyone was gone.

Once inside Eric went up to the roof to clear his mind. He didn't realize that someone was following him.

"Man this is some crazy shit." Eric mumbled to himself.

"You're telling me."

Eric turned to see Mitch standing by the stairs. The look on the man's face scared Eric a bit. Anger and a bit of secretiveness was plastered onto Mitch's face.

"I didn't know you followed me."

"So you tried to kill my brother." It wasn't a question.

"He killed my best friend and I let my anger get the best of me."

"Well, I wonder what would happen if I let my anger and wanting to protect my brother take over."

Eric stared at the man; confusion was noticeable in his eyes, while Mitch's eyes showed that he knew something.

Before Eric could realized, a loud screech came from behind as a large, slimy appendage wrapped around his torso, before it could pull him away, Eric looked at Mitch and saw that he was smiling, Mitch saw the infected and didn't warn Eric, and he wasn't going to help him either. Eric only had time to scream, as the creature's tongue pulled him to his death.


	5. Chapter 5

Hours went by. Hours that were filled with Willow's sobs and screaming. She sounded like the zombie that Bree turned into. Always crying and getting mad when someone tried to go near her. Once again they were down to three people in there group, and Willow only trusted one. Mitch had taken first watch while Dave tried to comfort Willow.

"Willow?"

"What Dave?" she no longer had emotion in her voice. Her glow of happiness was gone and all that was left was a shield that shocked everyone near her.

"Wanna come up with some names for all the infected we fought?"

Willow sighed, followed by looking at Dave for the first time in hours. Her eyes seemed to have lost their color. They were also red and puffy from crying all day.

"Bree became a _bitch_."

Dave didn't know how to respond to Willow's statement, so he just stared at her for a while.

"Umm, okay _Witch_ it is then."

"Whatever got Eric was an asshole."

Dave sighed, and then he stared at his friend again. He knew she was hurt, but she could at least try to help herself feel better.

"A'right, what do ya wanna talk 'bout?" Dave was becoming annoyed with her depressing attitude. It wasn't going to bring Eric back.

The group tried to find him after Mitch told them what happened, the story that they were told was that Eric and Mitch were talking on the roof when Mitch turned away from the other man, all he heard was a scream. Turning back around Eric was being dragged away by a zombie's tongue. Dave didn't quite believe the story, but for once Willow did.

"I'm still confused. You and Mitch are related, but you guys are so different." Willow mumbled.

"Honestly… were differen' cause… Ah was adopted."

This time Willow stared at Dave. She had never known that her best friend was adopted. Scarring the younger of the two Dave wrapped his arms around Willow, holding her in a tight bear hug.

"Ah'm sorry for Eric, an' Bree, an' Zero. Ah feel like Ah'm getting' everyone killed."

Willow then noticed that Dave was crying, but she didn't notice Mitch walk back in. Mitch stood in the doorway and watched the two friends sit there hugging. He quietly coughed and both Dave and Willow looked over at him. Dave quickly moved away from Willow, embarrassed, while Willow looked at Mitch.

"Aw shit, now Ah'm cryin'. Guys ain't suppose ta cry." Dave said as he wiped away his tears.

Willow, smiled at Dave and then her stare went back to the other man.

"What is it Mitch?" she asked.

"I was thinking that tomorrow morning; we should head out for the evac station, or a better safehouse. Hopefully, we might find more survivors." Mitch said, shrugging his shoulders.

Willow nodded as Dave sat there with a blank look on his face. Mitch noticed it, but didn't say anything at the moment; he figured that he was upset about Eric.

"Well, I guess we should get some sleep." Willow mumbled as she stood up and cracked her neck.

As Willow walked towards all of their supplies, she leaned over Dave and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Mitch rolled his eyes while Dave's face grew red.

"None of this is your fault…." Willow whispered so only Dave could hear.

Dave smiled and Willow walked away. Laying down right where he was at, Dave couldn't help but grin. Yawning, Mitch laid down on a blanket that Willow set out for him.

'Tomorrow will be a better day. Dave will not get hurt and if anyone hurts him like Eric, I will kill them too, even if it's Willow.' Mitch thought to himself.

When Dave was almost nine and Mitch was eleven, (Dave being seven when he was adopted.) the two boys were outside, playing tag or something. At a young age, Mitch liked to boss Dave around because he believed that the younger boy was his 'replacement' or that his parents liked Dave more. On that day, Mitch let his jealousy take over way too much. Basically, little Dave didn't see Mitch run up behind him. He did see the car as it hit him. As soon as Mitch realized what he did, he promised that he wouldn't let anything happen to his little brother.

Because the car he was pushed in front of was speeding, it hit Dave hard enough that he doesn't remember that day. Mitch was grateful for that.

After remembering that awful day Mitch finally fell into a deep sleep, along with Dave. But, Willow stayed awake. How could she sleep when her brother was dead? A few hours had gone by and she decided that if she couldn't handle the pain tomorrow, she would end it all. Even if it hurt Dave, she would do it because she loved her brother, and she wanted to see him again.

After a few more minutes, Willow finally fell asleep. Tears rolled down her cheeks, as she tightened her grip on her pistols in her dream like state.

Not a single zombie bothered them that night. It was like even the infected knew that they were upset and that the group didn't want to be bothered and that they needed their sleep. Either zombies still have some humanity in them, that allows them to be nice for a bit or they had enough humanity in them that allowed them to plot or plan a way to kill the survivors tomorrow, when they tried to cheat death another day.


	6. Chapter 6

Morning came too soon for the group's liking. Willow woke up first, followed by Mitch who watched as the only female made "breakfast". They enjoyed crackers, beef jerky, some bread, and water. When Dave finally woke up, he was very moody. Mitch tried not to laugh when he walked into a wall; he glared at him and mumbled something about being tired.

"Okay… what's the plan?" Willow mumbled, still depressed.

"Well after we eat and WAKE UP!" Mitch yelled into Dave's ear, "We can head towards another safehouse."

Dave only jumped when Mitch yelled, followed by glaring at him again.

"Ah don't wanna wake up." Dave wined.

Shaking her head, Willow stood up from her chair and started to pack everything they removed from their bags. Dave stomped towards the small, gas station bathroom, leaving Mitch alone.

Awhile later, Dave came running towards Willow and Mitch, suddenly full of energy.

"Guys, my phone!" he yelled with a huge grin on his face.

"Yes, and?" Willow asked looking at the phone Dave presented.

"We could call fo' help!"

"Who the hell are we gonna call for help?" Mitch asked.

"I swear to God Dave, please don't say Batman…." Willow complained while Mitch smirked.

"Aw c'mon. Ah ain't stupid." Dave whispered. Mitch rolled his eyes with a smile. Willow just stared at him. Turning on her heel, Willow walked out the doors. Dave grabbed his shotgun and a backpack, running to keep up with Willow. Mitch grabbed a baseball bat that they found a few days ago, during a horde, along with another bag.

Once everyone caught up with each other, Mitch led the way, Dave behind him, and Willow in the back.

Hours went by and luckily they only ran into a small horde. Dave tried to keep the spirits up by playing games like eye spy or twenty questions. Mitch barely played along, but he wasn't mean to his brother. Willow tried to ignore the others. She would glare at Dave when he tried to get her to interact with them. Eventually, she became so mad that he yelled at Dave to, "SHUT THE HELL UP." She had tears in her from thinking about Eric the whole trip. She thought about the way he smiled, the way he protected her from everything.

Willow then noticed that Dave stopped talking all together. He was thinking to himself. Thinking about how he is always annoying people or how he gets them killed. With a small sigh he ran after Mitch, who was being attacked by another one of the infected that Dave called a jockey. the infected was on Mitch's back, trying to steer him toward a few common infected.

"I hate those things." Mitch growled, after Dave saved him.

"Really? Ah thought ya love them things." Dave said; sarcasm dripping from his words.

Mitch flipped Dave's hat off his head and continued walking. Dave laughed while grabbing his hat, and then followed Mitch down the highway they made it to. Neither of them realized that Willow was far behind them. they were to busy trying to find any signs pointing towards a safehouse.

Willow's heart was pounding in her ears. She imagined Eric. Seeing him smiling at her as she ran to hug him. Looking down at the two pistols in her hands, she remembered what she said she would do if the pain was too much. A small smile appeared on her face, the tears finally falling and blurring her vision.

'For you Eric. I'm doing this for you.' Willow thought to herself.

Mitch looked over his shoulder and saw Willow. He saw the look in her eye and he knew what she was thinking. He once had that look in his eye when he had pushed Dave in front of that car. Shrugging his shoulders he turned around thinking that if she killed herself, it would be one less person to take care of or harm Dave. He tried not to smile.

'About time. I didn't want to have to kill any more people myself.

Dave saw Mitch look back and followed his gaze. Willow pulled one of her pistols up to her head. She was smiling and crying at the same time. Mitch kept walking and Dave froze. All signs of happiness leaving his face. He almost fell on his knees as he became light headed.

"W-illow…. put the gun down." Dave stuttered.

"I'm sorry, but Eric needs me."

"Eric wouldn't want this."

"Did you think I wanted this?"

"What 'bout me? You're my best friend!" his voice cracked.

Dave grew silent, looking down at his feet, he tried not to cry. Hearing a small click of Willow's gun, the man looked up, fear on his face. He lunged forward, grabbing Willow's arm that was holding the gun. Mitch turned around, wondering why Dave wasn't still behind him.

"DAVE NOOO!" Mitch screamed when he saw Dave pull the gun away from Willow. Dave didn't notice that it was aimed at him more now. The female's grip was still on the weapon. Trying to fight Dave for the gun, she tightened her grip even more.

Looking her in the eyes, Dave saw that the real Willow was gone. All that was left was a shell of the girl he secretly loved. He started to realize that his protective big brother role was a cover up for his true feelings around the time when Zero pushed her. Dave decided it was now or never to say something to Willow.

"Willow please. Ah… Ah love you."

Willow stopped moving as she stared at Dave. Her grip on her gun was still tight. She didn't realize that her grip was growing tighter. Willow's finger pulled the trigger.

Everyone jumped at the sound of the gunshot.


	7. Chapter 7

Darkness was all Dave saw. He remembered hearing the gun going off. He didn't remember where it went though. He had a feeling that Willow shot herself and he must have fainted or maybe he just shut himself out from the whole world. Sadly, he couldn't remember.

The gunshot was so loud that Dave could barely hear talking. Actually, it was screaming. He also felt hands on his chest. Maybe Mitch was trying to talk to him, but then again, the hands that were putting pressure on his chest felt too small to be Mitch's.

Dave began to realize that he was cold. He also noticed that the screaming was getting louder.

"DAVID!"

"Shit, you see what you did Willow."

Willow? She's still alive? If she is still alive, and Mitch is still alive then what happened that is making them scream? All of these questions and many more were buzzing through Dave's mind. His unconscious mind.

Willow had her hands over the hole in Dave's chest. Blood was still pouring out of it. Mitch was standing behind her, arms crossed, praying that Dave was okay.

"If you didn't have to go all suicidal on our asses, Dave wouldn't have gotten hurt." Mitch growled.

"Mitch, I already said I was sorry, now please help me!" Willow snapped.

While they argued, Dave's eyes fluttered open. He groaned at the pain in his body. Everything hurt. His eyes looked down at his blood covered chest.

"The hell….?" He whispered at the sight.

Willow's head spun around to look at Dave. Tears filled her eyes as she began to apologize like crazy,

"David, I am so sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly and it was an accident."

The southerner's head tilted to the right as he smiled. All color was gone from his face after losing so much blood.

"Willow it's okay. Ah mean, Ah understand why you tried ta kill yourself."

"Dave, that's not why she's apologizing." Mitch said, obviously annoyed with something.

Willow looked down at the ground, sadness in her eyes. Dave's eyes darted between his fellow companions. Now he was even more confused.

"What happened? Did a zombie get me?" Dave's voice was barely louder than a whisper.

"No, this fucking bitch shot you!" Mitch yelled, now enraged.

"I didn't mean to okay! My finger slipped and I didn't know the gun was aimed at him or I would've let go of the gun when he told me-"Willow tried to defend herself, but she froze as she remember what Dave had told her.

'_Willow please. Ah…Ah love you.'_

Everyone was silent. To be honest, they were secretly surprised that not a single infected bothered them at this moment when they were so vulnerable. Their surprise state was interrupted when an infected that they had never seen _charged_ right at them. One arm was huge and the other looked like a helpless string attached to a yo-yo or something. Since Mitch was the only one standing, the zombie ran at him at an unbelievable speed and carried him away.

"Shit Mitch!" Dave yelled out.

The infected was now pounding Mitch into the ground. Picking him up and then slamming him down onto the asphalt with the muscular arm only. Mitch began to scream out in pain when he heard something crack after a while.

Willow jumped up and grabbed her pistols. She glanced at Dave and then back at Mitch. She decided to run after the infected that was seconds away from possibly kill Mitch, leaving Dave to fend for himself if any other zombies came.

Shooting the infected in the head a few times ended its tainted life. She kneeled down by Mitch to see any wounds he had. Putting her hand over her mouth to keep from puking, Willow saw what Mitch heard crack earlier. His forearm had a bone sticking out of it. Blood poured from the hole left in his arm. Mitch was unable to move that arm.

Behind her, Willow heard screaming. She turned to see a hooded infected tearing away at Dave's chest.

"SHIT, GET IT OFF ME! GAHHHH!"

Willow grabbed her pistol and aimed it at the zombie's head. She missed the first time, but managed to shoot it in the back of the head. Dave weakly raised his hand. He was smiling.

"T-thanksss…."

Willow smiled as she helped Mitch to his feet. The man groaned at the pain and hissed when they started to move. As they got closer to Dave, they noticed that the mechanic was getting to his feet. Slowly.

"Dave, what are you doing?" Willow asked.

"We've gottah…get ta that saferoom one way 'er another…"

The group started to walk again. They only stopped when Dave collapsed a few times. No matter how many times he fell, Dave would get back up and refuse the help that was offered. Willow began to worry more. Her best friend was still losing a lot of blood and no matter what she or Mitch said; he wouldn't let them heal him at all.

As the sun began to set, Mitch was able to walk on his own. Not as well as normally, but the pain wasn't as bad so that was a good sign. He still couldn't move his left arm so it was wrapped up against his body with gauze that was in a health kit they brought from Willow's house. Eventually, Dave took some pain pills, but that was the only thing he did to help himself. He was still collapsing, more than before. Every time he would blame it on being tired, but no one believed him.

"Look guys. It's a saferoom!" Mitch exclaimed pointing at a house with a red door.

Running as fast as they could, the three made it inside without alerting any infected. Willow was the last one in and once everyone else was inside she closed the the door and locked it up. Dave walked over to a corner of the room and sat down, letting out a huge breath of relief. Mitch ran up the stairs to find a bathroom, and Willow walked over to Dave and began to work on his injuries.

A few moments later, they heard Mitch return. He wasn't alone. Behind him was a man with a rifle pointed at the back of his head. The man appeared to be in his early twenties, like everyone else here, and he had on a red t-shirt and black jeans. His hair was black as well and the style was very "skater boy" type theme. His icy blue eyes gave everyone chills. His skin was very pale but it was also covered in blood.

"Who the hell are ya guys?" He asked. He had a very slight southern accent, but it wasn't as heavy as Dave's.

The group remained quiet for they were all to scared for Mitch's sake and they were in shock that the met another real human being. The all knew that there might be a chance that he had been infected and he just didn't change yet, but they all ignored that possibility. They just wanted something good to happen for once. No one could blame them.


	8. Chapter 8

Silence filled the room as the new survivor aimed his gun at the back of Mitch's head. He looked tired and the man was slightly shaking. He was pretty beaten up and a few wounds looked infected. Not zombie infected, but like he didn't take care of them. It was obvious that he needed help to survive. Mitch was trying not to show fear but to be honest, he was terrified. Being at gunpoint was the worst experience of his life and he's had a lot of bad experiences.

"Look man, jus' put the gun down. We can talk this out." Dave broke the silence, slowly walking towards the man.

"….tell me your names." The man mumbled.

Willow stood from her seat on the floor. Looking at Dave and then prisoner Mitch, she sighed and rubbed her temples with her index fingers.

"Okay, I'm Willow. This is David, and the one who you are holding captive is Mitch."

The man looked back and forth between the three people that were new to him. He then sighed and mumbled something that no one could understand. Slowly he lowered his arm with the gun, down to his side. His cold blue eyes met Dave's violent green ones. All that was seen in those eyes were anger. Mitch saw it too. This was a completely different David Ross.

"Okay look, my names Mark." The newest survivor said, his voice shaking.

Mark wasn't one who looked for trouble. Not on purpose at least. Ever since he was younger, five to be exact, he was an orphan. His parents had died on his birthday, which happened to be Christmas day. Eventually all of this stress as a child made him kills his adoptive father at age sixteen. But, of course these strangers didn't need to know any of that.

"Okay Mark, first thing first….why should we trust you?" Mitch asked, now he was more relaxed. A flicker of anger passed on his face. He was trying to stay calm, but who could when you were almost shot?

"I'm human."

Willow could tell, just by those two words that Mark was a smartass. Mitch could tell that Mark was an asshole all together, and Dave wasn't behaving like the normal Dave that wasn't negative and that didn't stay quiet. He could read Mark like an open book, even with the poker face on the obviously younger man. For some reason Dave did not like Mark. It wasn't because of his cocky attitude though. There was something that clawed at the back of the southerner's mind.

'_He reminds me of somebody.'_

Those five words played over and over in Dave's mind. The same words were buzzing in Mark's mind too. He was sure that he and Dave once met each other before. It wasn't possible though because of Mark being adopted, no one ever talked to him as a child or adult really. Now that Mark thought of it though, he remembered one kid who was always full of energy and would never shut up about his older brother. That kid was Mark's first real friend. His only friend. This man couldn't be the same kid who was at the same orphanage as him. Dave looked like the kid, but he wasn't acting like him. Then again, who would act like their seven year old self during the zombie apocalypse?

Mark began to push all of his thoughts away. No way in hell was he gonna let some group of hicks make him forget what was Important. Even though only one of them was a hick. Mark just couldn't stop thinking.

'_God dammit, will you stop with the whole talking to yourself in your head!'_

Mitch saw the frustration on Mark's face. Wonder what the hell at first but he decided that it was just stress from all the shit everyone has gone through. Willow sighed and then yawned. Mark just realized how pretty Willow was, or in this case 'is'.

"Oh uh, would you like to get some sleep?" Mark asked, trying to seem nice.

"Well only if you insist." Mitch joked, walking past everyone to head upstairs. Eventually the others heard the eldest squeal like a little girl.

"Mitch, are ya okay?" Dave hollered up the stairs.

"There's a fucking spider in the shower!"

Willow smacked her face, while Dave rolled his eyes. Mark just stood there staring at the stairs with a look that said, 'the fuck?' Mitch came running back down the stairs, followed by grabbing Dave's arm.

"Go kill it."

"The hell man, go an' kill it yer self."

"Whoa, whoa wait. You just helped us kill tons of zombies and you are afraid to kill a spider?" Willow joined in.

Mitch shrugged his shoulders and the winced at the pain he still had. Dave sighed and stomped up the stairs.

"Watch out now, it could be a zombie spider." Dave said sarcastically to Mitch.

Mitch was silent for a minute. Dave looked over his shoulder to see Mitch standing there frozen in place. His hazel eyes were wide.

"My God, Ah was jus' jokin. There ain't no such thing as a zombie spider." As he said the last two words the ground started to shake. Down the stairs the brothers heard Willow yell out. Mark was cursing loudly as well. Mitch ran down the stairs first followed by Dave. From what they could see, a huge, muscular infected was running at the saferoom.

"Shit, it's another Tank." Mark said.

"What the hell is a Tank?" Willow asked, with panic in her voice.

"It's one of 'em war cars that shoot at the enemies and blow 'em up an' shit." Dave informed.

"Uhhh, no wrong kind of Tank, hick." Mark growled.

The Tank was almost at their "safe" house. Any minute it would burst though the wall and kill them all. With nowhere to run, the group tried to shoot it through the barriers. Might as well die fighting. Mitch looked around the room, trying to find anything that might help. In the corner of the room was a red can of gasoline. Running at full speed, Mitch grabbed the can, opened the door and threw it at the tank. Willow understood what he was doing and shot at the gas can, causing it to burst into flames.

The cries of the Tank started out loud as it burned, but soon the screams along with the zombie died away. Looking back and forth between each other, the survivors smiled, and then their smiles grew into laughter.

"Ah can't believe it. We didn't die. We're gonna get to sleep tonight as well." Dave yelled out.

"Also, we'll have time to eat." Willow added.

"After my shower though." Mitch said with a toothy grin. He once again walked up the stairs. The others were silent while the waited. They all had on an amused look on their faces.

"AHHH! SHIT! THE FUCKING SPIDER IS STILL IN HERE!"

The other three couldn't help but laugh. For the first time in days they all felt truly happy.


	9. Chapter 9

_**March 9**__**th**__** 1996**_

_The adoption center was basically a boot camp for kids. That is how little seven year old David saw this place as. No one talk to him and all they did was clean for the owner. The older kids beat up the younger ones just because they felt like it. Most of the time the adults who were in charge would punish a child for no reason. At this age, Dave liked being called David. The name Dave was for 'older people' according to David. _

_ Being one of the younger kids Mark was never paid attention to by the older kids. At this time of his life he was five years old. He was the one kid that everyone picked on….everyone except David. The two boys would hang out every chance they got. Sadly their friendship only lasted for a few months. Mark was adopted first. Leaving David at the adoption center for two more months of being bullied for being friends with a five year old. Finally, one day a nice family came to find another son._

_ They had a little boy with them. He was older than David, with hazel eyes and glasses. His black jacket was really fancy, for a kid. The parents were nice and the boy was quiet. David was surprised when the older boy came up to him and glared while saying the one sentence that made David forget his life at the orphanage. _

_ "Names Mitch. I'm your new brother."_

_OoOoOoOoOoOo_

The survivors sat in the kitchen of the saferoom after a good night sleep for once. Mark was eating a bagel that was from his stash of supplies. Willow was looking at a map, planning their next move. Mitch was bouncing a small bouncy ball that he found upstairs. Dave was not surprisingly still asleep. Willow and Mitch didn't really care about that but for some reason it drove Mark insane.

"Okay, why the fuck does the hick get to sleep all day?"

Mitch glared a Mark for the word 'hick'. Willow rolled her eyes and sighed. Putting down the map she got up from her chair and went to wake Dave up, leaving Mark and Mitch alone.

"I don't like you." Mitch said flatly.

"Wow really, I thought you loved me jackass."

'Hmm jackass. That will be this guy's nickname.' Mark thought. Might as well have one for everyone, and not just Dave or the hick.

"Okay he's getting dressed." Willow informed as she walked back into the room. Mitch nodded and Mark rolled his eyes.

Dave walked in a few minutes later with a grey t-shirt and bag jeans. He still wore his hat and blue jacket. Both were covered in zombie blood and God knows what else.

"A'right, what's the plan fer today?"

"Don't know yet." Mitch said.

"Well while you guys figure that out Ah'm gonna go an' kill some zombies with a fryin' pan."

"Hey hick." Mark called out, ignoring Mitch's glare.

Dave sighed, and then turned around. He hated being called a hick, but he wasn't going to start a fight this early to get Mark to stop.

"….I feel like I've met you before."

Willow's gaze went to Dave. He had a look on his face that said he was thinking a lot. Mitch wasn't paying attention at all. Dave shrugged his shoulders and walked outside. Mark growled.

"Fine then. Fuck you too."

Willow sighed. It seemed that that was all she ever did was sigh at everything. She began to think of why, but just decided that it was because she was surrounded by morons. Well one moron known as Mitch, an asshole that was Mark and a five year old that knows every cuss word which was Dave. What she didn't know was that in the guys minds, she was an over protective bitch or mother because Dave couldn't call her a bitch.

A half an hour passed and everything, except for the sound of a frying pan hitting bone, was silent. Eventually Mitch fell asleep in his chair. Mark started to look through all of his supplies, leaving Willow to plan ahead on her own. Mark was the one who realized that the sound of Dave killing zombies had stopped.

"Is the hick still outside?"

Willow got up and walked towards the door Dave went out of earlier. Mark was right behind her, leaving Mitch alone and asleep still in the kitchen. They opened the door, expecting to see Dave waiting for a zombie to walk by, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Shit." Willow hissed under her breath.

"Great…lets go find him." Mark said with a slight annoyed tone added to his voice.

Willow nodded and then ran back inside to get her pistols. Mark had grabbed a baseball bat form who knows where right before they walked out the door, completely forgetting about Mitch.

Making it down a few blocks, the two suddenly heard the hiss of an infected followed by a scream. Running to find who screamed, once again expecting it to be Dave, Mark and Willow found what had made the hiss and the scream. Again they were wrong for expecting to see Dave. What they found was the same kind of infected that had gotten Eric a few days ago. The one that screamed was another human, but they couldn't see who it was as it ran at the zombie and stabbed it through its head with a sword.

Blood flew everywhere, almost hitting Mark and Willow. As the infected died it released a cloud of green smoke, causing the three humans to cough like crazy.

"Willow?" said the new survivor. Well not so new to Willow but new to Mark.

Willow started to cry when she saw who was in front of her, cover in zombie blood, but still the same man.

"Eric…."


	10. Chapter 10

The visions of a speeding car startled Dave enough to cause him to awake from his unconsciousness. He always had that one nightmare where he got hit by a car and he didn't know why. What he did know was that before he blacked out an infected; the one that had gotten Eric; had attacked him. When he able to see clearly again, Dave saw that he was in a room. Not the same room at the saferoom he and his friends stayed at though.

"Ugh….where am Ah?"

The sound of a door opening and closing startled the mechanic.

"Welcome to Atlanta stranger." A voice boomed.

At first Dave was trying to figure out how he got to Atlanta but then he realized that Mitch had said that an evac station was in Atlanta.

"Ah made it…." Dave whispered.

"…..Okay then. It's nice to meet you, I'm Jason." Said the man.

"Names Dave…uhhh how did Ah get here?"

"Well you see, a Smoker got you-"

"Smoker? The hell is that?"

"That's what we call the infected with the tongues."

Dave looked around the room as he waited for Jason to continue his story of how he was even alive right now.

"Well we saw the Smoker drag you pretty far while we were on one of our supply runs and we killed it and brought you back here to help. The Smoker had you in its grip that was so tight that you blacked out for like two days from the lack of air."

Dave began to think things over in his mind. The last thing he remembered before the zombie tried to kill him was that the others were being boring so he went outside to kill zombies with a frying pan. He did remember that he tried to scream for help but the "Smoker's" tongue had crushed his lungs up and wrapped itself around his throat. Now he remembered that he was unable to breath after a while.

The southerner's stomach twisted with a small feeling of anger and fear. He was angry because none of his friends went outside to see if he was okay. He was afraid that maybe they got hurt worse that he did.

"Listen, Jason, ya gotta help me save my friends."

Jason had dirty brown hair that's style was a buzz cut. He had on a camouflage shirt and ripped blue jeans. His face had a light beard that matched his hair. He was covered in scars and bruises. It was obvious that he was in the military before the apocalypse.

"Hmm well do you know where they are?"

"Well, not exactly….where did ya find me again?"

"Just outside of Savannah. Like I said, that Smoker dragged you far away."

Dave ran his hand through his hair, his eyes widened when he didn't feel his hat on his head.

"Don't worry your clothes are being cleaned." Jason laughed. Now that it was mentioned, Dave noticed that he was wearing new clothes. A plain orange T-shirt and baggy black shorts. Not his style but whatever.

"Thanks, but will ya help me?"

Jason scratched at his beard; his light blue eyes looked at the ceiling. After a few minutes the man chuckled and looked back at Dave. With a smile on his face he nodded.

"I guess we can help you. The more survivors the better."

Dave jumped off of the bed he was on whooping loudly. Jason laughed with shaking his head. The door opened again, silencing Dave long enough to see someone he didn't know who smiled at him.

In the doorway was a woman who looked like she was in her early twenties. She had long brown hair and she wore a light pink shirt. She was shorter than Dave and she had on blue skinny jeans that were tucked into her black winter boots.

"Jason the radio is going crazy. Someone is out there calling for help and by the sounds of it, they need it badly." Said the girl.

Jason stood up from his seat and sighed. With one last smile he left the room.

"Uhhh, hello. Ah'm Dave."

"Jackie." That was her response as she held her hand out, waiting for Dave to shake it.

Dave smiled as they shook hands. Suddenly Jason busted back into the room, a huge grin on his face.

"Well Dave, I think we found your friends."

It turns out that Jason was right. On the radio (that was taken from a truck) they could hear a voice that Dave recognized as Mark.

"_Holy shit! Anyone out there? We could use some help."_

Willow's voice joined in after Marks. In the background, Mitch was screaming loudly for someone to shoot the Charger that had him.

"_Dave? David, if you're out there please be careful. We have been looking for you for the past two days. Right now we are at a hospital. You won't believe who we found alive though. We found-"_

_ "Sup Dave!" _a familiar voice interrupted Willow's. Dave instantly smiled.

"Eric! How the hell is he alive?"

Jason handed Dave the radio's microphone. Slowly Dave pushed the talk button with a smile.

"Eric? Willow? Guys are ya okay?"

The noise that came back was so crazy that no one could understand it. Although it sounded like everyone yelled out 'Dave' really loudly.

_"Dave, where are you man?"_ Eric's voice asked.

"Ah'm in Atlanta! Don't worry, Ah'm coming to get ya, then Ah'll tell ya'll 'bout it."

In the background all that was heard was gunshots and screaming. Suddenly there was the sound of an explosion.

"_Oh shit…..Dave please hurry there's another Tank and a Witch or whatever it is Mark calls them." _this time it was Mitch who said something.

Tears formed in Dave's eyes as he heard his teammates scream in fear, anger, and in pain. Jason had a look of sorrow on his face while Jackie looked like she was about to cry.

"Listen guys, Ah promise that Ah will be there. Don't give up. Please."

Static.

This static was a lot worse than the static on Dave's TV. That day seemed like so long ago. The day he met Eric, Bree, Zero. Now two of those three were dead, and the rest of his friends were next if he didn't do anything. Dave's sad behavior suddenly died and became serious. He was once again a completely different David Ross.

"Ah'll be the one to save 'em all. From now on, only the strongest will survive…. and that's me."


	11. Chapter 11

"Get back!" Willow screamed at her fellow survivors as she threw a random Molotov that she had found at the zombies. The flames from the Molotov barely missed Mark and Eric.

Earlier Eric had told them the story of how he survived. Apparently when the infected manage to get food, other infected will fight them over it. The zombie that attacked Eric long ago was mauled to death by a zombie that spits acid at whatever it wants. Luckily the acid only burned the zombie, allowing Eric to run and find shelter in a Wal-Mart nearby. He managed to find supplies and weapons on his journey to find his sister.

"When is Dave gonna be here?" Mitch yelled over the roar of more infected running at them from who knows where.

Mark shot a few zombies in the face as they ran at him, with their claws extended, "He didn't say exactly when. Shit! Eric behind you!"

Mitch wasn't too happy when he awoke from the kitchen table to see Eric alive still. He did ask, with a hint of anger in his voice how the man survived. Everyone assumed that his anger was from being awake again.

Willow was using everything she could find on the floor of the roof of the hospital they had been camping at since they began their search for Dave. How Dave was going to get from Atlanta to the outside of Savannah in a few hours was unknown, but Dave was smart. Well he was smart in his own unique way and he would find a way to save his friends.

Just as Mitch started to reload his pistol, another Charger charged right at him, just like before when Willow shot Dave. It slammed him into the ground after carrying him away just like before. It hurt like hell just like before and just like before he heard another bone crack.

"WHY THE HELL IS IT ALWAYS ME!?"

Eric ran up behind the zombie and swung his fire at he had found into the back of the Charger's head. Ending its tainted life.

"Man, I think it broke one of my ribs." Mitch said, lifting his shirt up enough to see one of his ribs jutting out of his side. From his angel he couldn't see it.

"How bad is it?" he asked Eric.

"Uhhh, just a bruise." Eric smiled with worry lines on his face.

Just like before a tongue wrapped around Eric, pulling him away from Mitch. Screaming for help, Eric tried to pull the tongue off of him, but the zombie's appendage was surprisingly strong. What was also a surprise was seeing Mitch shoot at the zombie's tongue.

"A life for a life. You save me I save you." Mitch said as he shrugged his shoulders.

Mark was trapped in a corner as a horde of common infected tore at his skin. He began to scream, but his cries were drowned out as the sound of a chainsaw roared over everything.

"DIE! DIE! DIE! AH SWEAR TA THE LORD IF YA'LL DON' LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" said a voice as the chainsaw roared over the rest of the threat.

As the number of zombies disappeared, the savior came into view. There in the center of it all was Dave. Cover in blood from head to toe as he tore zombies in half with his new toy. Blood spewed everywhere as bodies fell.

Slowly the few infected that remained were killed as well. Followed by everyone running up to Dave and hugging him or giving him a high-five. He smelled like puke and gasoline, but nobody said anything as two more people walked over.

"Guys Ah want ya'll ta meet Jason and Jackie." Dave said with excitement in his voice.

Mitch walked over to Jackie with a sly grin on his face.

"Well heeelloooo there."

"Burn in hell." Jackie said with a smile.

Mitch laughed and turned away, losing his smile and mumbling curse words. Dave laughed as Jason patted Mitch on the back.

"Well come on let's get you guys to Atlanta." Jason exclaimed.

No one could believe it. They were going to survive. Sure they had lost Zero and Bree but at least they didn't have to go through what everyone else who is alive did. They were the first ones to be fully safe.

Willow stayed noticeably close to Jason. The man didn't seem to mind. Once in the truck that Dave used to get to his friends, the journey to safety began. With only a few zombies here and there everything seemed perfect. A few hours had gone by and Jason was starting to get annoying, with all of his war stories. No one said anything but it wasn't hard to tell that they were annoyed.

After a few more hours, the truck drove by a sign that said 'Atlanta 20mi away.' Everyone let out a sigh of relief. Once they arrived to the camp everyone gasped at the sight. Everything was in flames. A man came running up to the truck screaming.

"A horde came and there was a Tank and like twenty Witches and Smokers and Jockeys….." Jason put his hand up to quiet the man.

"Okay, shit…. Esteban get in the truck."

Esteban hoped into the bed of the truck with Jackie and Mark. Mark raised a hand up at him as if that was a wave and Jackie smiled at him. He smiled back, ignoring Mark.

At the time Dave was in the back seat with Mitch and Eric. Willow sat up front with Jason who was driving. The now larger group of survivors began to go on another road trip. The mood in the air was a lot more somber as they moved farther away from Atlanta. Even Jason had stopped talking.

As everyone realized that their one chance of fully surviving the apocalypse was now burning behind them they all sighed and started to fall into a deep sleep, dreaming of their old life before everything went to hell.


	12. Chapter 12

_Dead. Everyone was dead. Screaming did nothing to save them as everyone fell into the abyss of death. As they all fell hands of the living dead clawed and pulled at their limbs. All hope was lost as one by one everyone was torn apart in front of the others. First to turn while they still fell, with their surroundings of each other growing darker, was Mark. He let out an ear splitting scream as a zombie, which was invisible to the human's eyes, bit his arm, leaving a bloody bite mark that seemed to appear out of nowhere. _

_ After him Willow joined the living dead's clan. Soon after Dave "died" as well. Then Jason and Eric. Finally Jackie and Esteban turned while they held hands. Leaving Mitch to be the one who was torn limb from limb by his own friends and his own brother. All the light that allowed him to see his "friends" died down even more, but he never got to see it die before everything went black from his death, allowing him to join his friends as a zombie._

Still in the back seat of the truck, Mitch's eyes popped open. His heart was racing and he was having trouble breathing. Everyone but Jason, who was still driving, was asleep. To Mitch's right was Dave. He had dark circles under his eyes and his face was more pale than normal. He looked like he had a fever. Mitch could only hope that it wasn't the infection.

Next to Dave was Eric. His face was squished against the window as he snored. Drool was dripping from his mouth. Obviously he needed a lot more sleep than what he showed through his actions. Still in the passenger seat was Willow, who had her head on the seat's arm rest. Her hair covered her face but it was obvious that she was asleep. In the back, Esteban, Jackie, and Mark could be seen, laying down as best as they could, passed out trying to sleep for a while longer.

The car slowed down to a stop at a small store. Jason unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the car door. He stood outside for a second and Mitch assumed he was just stretching his legs so he tried to fall back asleep. As soon as he got comfortable again he heard yelling and clapping.

"Alright, wake up everyone. Rise and shine!" Jason yelled.

Everyone jumped from their slumber and a few mumbled words that couldn't be hear unless you were right next to their face. Mitch cursed under his breath as he sat up and popped his back a bit. Looking to his right, Mitch saw that Dave still wasn't awake. Luckily he was breathing still, even shivering a bit, but he wasn't waking up. Eric noticed to and tried to shake him awake. Dave didn't even move in protest like he normally did.

"Great, is the hick not getting up again? He is such a kid." Mark said from behind the truck. Willow looked back at him with worry in her eyes. The mechanic looked seriously ill. She leaned forward to touch Dave's arm. His skin was ice cold.

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Esteban asked with Jackie right behind him. It was kind of noticeable that they like each other a bit.

As Jason was about to respond, Dave sat right up. His green eyes were wide and bloodshot. He tried to breath but the air was caught in his throat as he gaged a bit. Finally breathing in some air, he screamed. Tears were falling down his cheeks. Everyone panicked when his tear turned into blood. Mitch was praying that he was dreaming still as Dave's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and as he fell back down into his sleeping state again.

"I was going to say that I think that he…..was bitten…." Jason whispered after a few minutes of sitting in fear of what just happened. Dave was even more pale that before. His skin was practically white like a sheet of paper, and the dark circles under his eyes were darker.

The man's eyes were still open and the green in his eyes were now turning black. Once again Dave sat up and screamed. This time he yelled out words.

"SOME ONE…. SHOOT ME!" after he said those words he threw up. It was all blood.

Jackie was going through all the supplies when she found an adrenaline shot. Taking the cap off of it she ran at Dave and grabbed his arm. Rolling the sleeves of his jacket up all she saw was a blood red bite mark on his forearm. She did the only thing she could think of to help Dave a little longer. Stabbing the bite with the adrenaline and injecting the medicine into his arm, Jackie winced.

Suddenly Dave stopped moving. His face went blank as the medicine flowed through his veins. His heart began to race and as he stayed frozen, Mitch worked on cleaning the bite. Hoping that it will help.

After a few minutes, Dave had fallen asleep and everyone was working on his bite. It had stopped bleeding long enough for Jason to wrap bandages around it after it was clean. Dave's face was turning back to normal color, and when Eric would open the southerner's eye, they could see the black turning green again.

Once everything calmed down a bit, the group began to talk for a while. So many questions were buzzing in the air.

"Why didn't he tell us?" Esteban asked.

"Maybe he thought we would kill him right away if he told us." Willow mumbled.

"But why didn't he change right away?" Mark asked.

"Dude, my brother never stayed sick for long. I'm guessing that his body tried to fight the infection." Mitch said.

'Okay Dave, if you were able to fight the virus long enough for us to stop it from spreading, then you are more of a badass than I am.' Mitch thought to himself, as the sun began to set in the distance.


	13. Chapter 13

Apparently, rumors were going around during the beginning of the apocalypse that some people were immune to the infection. Since Jason, Jackie, and Esteban were part of a big city area, they heard news and rumors about the zombies all the time. That was how they came up with names for each "special" infected. What made them special was their special abilities. Like for example, the hooded zombie that attacked Dave days ago on the highway was called a Hunter for the way it hunted its prey.

Jackie came up with a name for the infected that spit acid out at the survivors. She decided that its name should be short and simple, a Spitter. Yet for some reason that only God knows why, Spitters were only female and Hunters were male. Never has there been a girl Hunter or a guy Spitter.

The main reason though that this being immune rumor was important was because the group believed that Dave was partly immune to the virus, and that was why he was able to fight it long enough. Everyone was still in shock from the scene that happened a few hours ago. According to Esteban, who, for some reason had been counting the days that had passed since the infection broke out, just a few days ago it was New Years. Well after doing the very easy math, they found out that today's date was January 3rd of the year 2013.

Dave's 23rd birthday.

Sadly he still hadn't woken up. It has been at the most, twelve hours now since Dave almost turned into a zombie. The others had decided that some people should split up and scout ahead to see what waited for them. Of course Dave would have to stay behind at the store that they had set a small camp up at. Mitch was the first who volunteered to stay with his brother.

At first everyone expected Willow to stay too, but when Jason said he would scout ahead, she changed her mind, leaving her "bestfriend" who almost died behind, without looking back. Eric felt like he didn't know the girl who was his sister anymore, for she was always with Dave from day one.

In the end Dave, Mitch, Jackie, Esteban, and Mark stayed at the camp while Jason, Willow, and Eric went to scout ahead. While the ones who were leaving packed up, no one said a word. The silence was driving everyone insane, if they already weren't insane yet.

It was now noticeable that the apocalypse was taking a toll on everyone. Every guy now needed a shave and every girl needed their hair straightener or just a complete makeover. Everyone had dark circles under their eyes and they were pretty scratched up from all the zombie claws. Not only did they look bad but they smelled bad from the lack of showers.

As time went by supplies and daily routines were hard to keep. Every time there was silence, the sound of everyone's stomach growling did the talking for them.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Hours ticked away after half of the group left. At one point Mitch and Mark got in a heated argument causing Mark to leave, hoping to find the others. So now Jackie, Esteban, Mitch, and Dave were the only ones left at the small store. A while ago, Jackie fell asleep while Esteban stayed on watch. Mitch hadn't left Dave's side since they got there. He was not going to leave his brother for dead like Willow did. Now Mitch hated the woman in question even more. After all this time of being Dave's "best friend" she follows some overly talkative guy around while batting her eyelashes. Why Dave "loved" her was unknown to Mitch. Even when Dave had told her his feelings she didn't continue the conversation. In fact, she shot him in the chest.

While Mitch daydreamed, he didn't notice Dave move. Sitting straight up, Dave looked at his brother which caused the man to jump back to reality. The hat on his head of black hair covered his eyes, so Mitch couldn't tell if this was the real Dave or _Zombie Dave._

"….Dave? Is that you?" Mitch asked, his voice shaking.

Dave's hand reached up to move his hat away from his eyes, showing his normal vibrant green stare.

"Naw, its Willow…." Dave said with a smirk.

Mitch smiled as he pulled his younger brother into a hug. His actions were way out of character but he could pull himself back together later. The sound of gunshots and zombies dying reminded Mitch that Esteban was alone outside. As Mitch stood up he patted Dave's head while laughing. Dave snorted.

"What, did'cha miss me?" he had a huge grin on his face.

"Well you started to turn into a zombie right in front of us so I'm going to be emotional for a second." Mitch said rolling his eyes.

Dave laughed, but then he became serious as he said one last thing before Mitch left, "Don't ever get bitten man, when ya start ta turn, it burns like hell."

Once again Mitch rolled his eyes but with a small laugh. As he walked out the door to assist Esteban, Mitch told Dave to get some rest just in case. Hopefully the others were coming back soon. They would want to see Dave alive, normal, and still just as annoying at times.

As the day turned to night, more infected arrived at the store. It was like they were coming there to shop.

At this time of day, everyone in this group was outside killing zombies while they waited for the other half of their team.

"Clean up on aisle three!" Dave yelled as he crushed a zombie's face in with a frying pan. It turns out that they worked well for killing more than cooking.

Esteban smacked his face with an annoyed sigh. All that was said between the group was Dave's stupid jokes and someone telling him to shut up. Sadly he wouldn't listen, and the jokes got stupider.

Jokes or no jokes though, the rest of the group didn't come back that night. What the four that stayed behind didn't know was that the others were in trouble. With one missing and two dead, only one was left and it wasn't Mark, Jason or Willow. It was Eric, and he was running out of time as he tried to find any of his friends, before the Witch that was chasing him tore him to pieces. Along with the horde protecting the Tank. As his last bullet was shot he slowly, for the first time in his life, gave up hope.


	14. Chapter 14

"Where are they?" Esteban asked, breaking the silence.

It had been days since the others had left to scout ahead. Jackie was always looking at her feet since day three of the rest of the group being gone. Mitch didn't talk anymore and Esteban wouldn't shut up half the time. Trying to keep everyone's hopes up is what everyone thought he was doing but he was trying to calm himself down more than the others.

Dave on the other hand barely moved from his "room". He would come out to go to the bathroom, take his turn on watch, or pick at his food. It seemed like he had given up completely. No one could blame him. He missed Willow and no one had the heart to tell him that she left him for dead just to follow Jason.

The sun was setting on day six without the other half of the team. It seemed like the zombies grew hungrier and more violent when the sun went down. Their screams were louder and the damage to the area only got worse with each passing night.

As everyone got ready for sleep, the normal sound of a Witch wandering around made the survivors spines shiver. The other three didn't fear them as much as Dave, since they weren't around for the attack from Bree. That day seemed like years ago. Day one of the infection. Zombie killing took over everything. If anyone had a job before this, shooting a zombie in the face was their new job. All the fancy television shows were canceled and replaced by a horror movie about zombies.

But this movie never ended. And the survivors couldn't stop reminding themselves that this wasn't a game or a movie. There were no unlimited lives or second chances. There were close calls like in all the Mario games when you would fall of the edge and kick yourself off the wall back on the ledge, but little technique of getting one hundred coins to get another life doesn't work when everyone who has already died come back. But not from coins or green mushrooms, the zombie apocalypse that everyone said they were prepared for took them by surprise.

In the distance footsteps could be heard. Whoever it was, they were sprinting. Normally the group would have thought it was an infected, but when the runner screamed for help they all jumped and ran outside to see Eric. He was a bloody mess. No one could tell if it was his blood or a zombie's. He didn't have a weapon anymore, and yet he was still smiling. The same smile he had when he left.

Once they got him inside, Jackie tried to help heal his injuries. Eric began to tell the story of how he managed to survive the impossible again. Maybe he had unlimited lives. After a while of being put back together, Dave couldn't wait any longer.

"Where are the others?"

Eric looked up at the sound of Dave's voice. Dark circles were under bloodshot green eyes. They showed no emotion for once. Jackie still looked at her feet, Esteban messed with his hair while Mitch still didn't say a word. A few minutes went by as Eric stared back at Dave.

"I don't know where Mark is."

"What about Jason?" Jackie asked.

Eric stared at her with a cold expression on his face.

"Dead."

Esteban jumped to his feet and left the room yelling that he didn't want to hear anymore. Dave looked from Jackie who was looking at her feet again without blinking for a while. Mitch still didn't say anything. He didn't even move.

"What 'bout Willow?" Dave mumbled.

Eric's cold stare went soft for a second, and then it went normal again.

"Listen Dave, Willow is….."

Dave knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it before he said anything.

"She's dead." Eric choked.

Eric walked out of the room as well, tears rolling down his cheeks. Jackie sat on the floor. She was talking to Dave but he didn't hear anything. All that he heard was the ringing in his ears. He knew Eric wouldn't lie about his sister's death, but the southerner didn't believe that she was gone. Willow was stronger than anyone in Dave's eyes. She was always there for him. He would even bet money on her wanting to stay at the small store with Dave, but Eric didn't want to be away from her. There was no way she would leave him to die. Right?

All of these thoughts were interrupted when Jackie slapped him across the face.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!" Dave screamed.

"I was talking to you and you were staring at me with a weird look. I was trying to tell you the truth. Willow didn't even glance at you as she left. She didn't even care that she was leaving you behind or that she was with Eric. She wanted to go to be with Jason."

Dave stood up slowly as the word sunk into his mind.

"This is my fault. If Ah jus' told ya guys 'bout my zombie bite, we could've all gone together sooner."

As he walked away Mitch stood up. He looked down at Jackie, and chuckled.

"Serves her right. She was foolish to leave Dave and us behind."

Jackie smiled.

"You hated her didn't you?"

"When don't I hate someone?"

"When its Dave."

"Yea well no one messes with my brother. Not even his best friend."

"Well what did she do to you that made you hate her so much? I mean she basically broke Dave's heart, but what did she do to you? Hmmm?"

Mitch smiled, after thinking for a moment. It was noticeable that the old Mitch was back. For now at least.

"Well, what did she do?" Jackie asked again with a smile.

"She…" Mitch began but stopped to scratch his nose with a small laugh deep in his throat.

"…..left us for dead."


	15. Chapter 15

Most people will never understand what it's like to lose someone you love. Now Eric knew how Willow felt when everyone thought he was dead. Cold and empty on the inside. He had never meant to let her die; it wasn't like he didn't care about her anymore. It wasn't fair that before Jason died, he said Eric didn't even try to save her. It was Willow who didn't care anymore.

The way it all started was with a Hunter pinning Eric. As the survivor fought back a Jockey grabbed Jason. Eric believed that Willow was running to save him, but when she ran right pass him over to Jason, he felt like he didn't have a sister anymore. Not once did she ever leave him behind. First Dave and then her own brother. And for what? A guy she just recently met. A guy who never shut the hell up and was an even bigger child than Dave at heart. Willow let her old habits of falling for interesting men end her life along with the man she fell for.

The three were on a small bridge at the time. Eric was trying to rest after the Hunter nearly tore out his lungs. Jason was fine and so was Willow. All was quiet until a bubbling noise was heard from behind. When they looked to see what infected planned on attacking them, Willow was instantly covered in green vomit. It smelled worse than a full trash bag that had been sitting for a long time. The vomit came from a very over weight zombie. It had huge boils on its face and it smelled awful as well. As it ran, Jason shot it and it exploded in the distance.

The scent of the puke attracted a horde so large that the bridge was full of zombies. They all went for Willow as she tried to protect Jason. Eric couldn't move in time to warn her of the Tank that was about to hit her from behind. It snapped her in half. Soon after that Jason tried to kill Eric. It didn't end well when the same Tank threw a huge rock at him, splitting him in half as well.

Eric was surprised when the others were still alive, and the fact that Mark was still gone trying to find him, didn't calm him down any. No one else needed to die. Not now, not ever. Not until they were old and had lived a long life. Not until they were happy with their past. And as of right now, only one person was not as depressed as the others. Mitch.

"Okay, help me find a way to cheer everyone up." Eric whispered.

"Why, as soon as your happy time is over they will get upset again." Mitch hissed coolly.

"Well wouldn't it be nice to have a night out just one last time. We don't know if we have a tomorrow, so let's have fun today."

Mitch looked at the floor then at Eric. There was a sly look on his face. He had an idea.

"Let's find some alcohol."

Eric blinked at the older man. Mitch couldn't be serious. What if they got to drunk and then a zombie attacked them while they were unable to defend themselves? Eric only responded with a look of worry.

"Okay you really need to tone down the whole leader role. You seem stressed out." Mitch growled.

Eric blew up.

"Listen, I watched my sister die, my best friend was murdered, my cousin was turned into a zombie and then shot. Don't talk to me about calming down. I don't want anyone else to get killed. Oh and another thing about killing, you almost got me killed. What the hell did I do to you?"

"You almost killed Dave!"

"HE KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!"

Mitch looked at Eric with shock on his face. This whole time the little innocent David was really a murderer.

"….How?" Mitch asked, his voice shaking.

"With a guitar to the head. That was the day after Zero, my friend, shot Bree, my cousin. I'm amazed that Dave hasn't killed Mark yet since Zero treated him the same way."

"Okay but do you really think that Dave isn't suffering from regret and guilt for what he did? I mean yea sure he can be emotional at bad times but once he realized what he did, he probably wanted you to kill him."

Eric looked at the floor followed by whispering, "Just because I hurt your brother doesn't mean you had to try and kill me though."

"Yeah well ever since I almost killed him, I vowed to protect him no matter what I have to do."

"You almost killed him?!"

"I was a jealous nine year old, so I pushed him in front of a speeding car. Luckily he doesn't remember that."

Someone cleared their throat in the doorway. Both Mitch and Eric turned to see Dave staring at them.

"Well, Ah'm glad ya guys are bondin' but Ah jus' remembered somethin'. My brother tried ta kill me." Dave said with a smirk.

"Okay look it was an accident. I was just jeal-"Mitch tried to say before Dave interrupted him.

"Also, ya tried ta kill Eric. Ah think your worse than me when it comes ta controllin' our anger."

"Yeah right, you killed someone for real. I only attempted to."

"Well, Ah wish Ah could fix what Ah did. Every night Ah think 'bout how Ah killed Zero. Ah jus' wish that it was me who died instead." Dave said as he left the room.

Mitch smirked at Eric.

"I told you he regretted it."

Eric laughed. It was a real laugh for the first time in a while.

"You know what? You're alright, Mitch."

Mitch couldn't help but smile, for no one ever really had wanted to be his friend. Maybe Eric would see him as his best friend so he wouldn't think about Zero.

Off in the distance, Mark walked up to an abandoned house. At the front was a blue dirt bike that seemed to have been abandoned as well. Inside the house there were loud groans coming from the living room. No doubt they belonged to an infected.

Mark walked into the living room, slowly, to see a zombie with long blonde hair, half his face smashed in, and covered in blood. He was sitting by a bloody guitar. Mark noticed on the wall, a picture of Willow. She was smiling, while wearing a black hat with an eighty-five on it. Next to her was Dave. He was trying to get his hat back from Willow. From looking at all of the pictures on the one wall, Mark could tell that this place was Willow's house. He must have gone the wrong way when he left.

The zombie turned around. His face looked a lot like the man in the picture next to the one of Dave and Willow. On the bottom of the picture it said _Zero_. Mark turned to run from the zombie since he didn't have a weapon anymore. As he ran outside, Zombie Zero ran after him, with the bloody guitar in his hand. Mark then realized that the normal zombies were learning. It was either that or Zero remembered what had killed him. Mark only wondered if he remembered who killed him, for he sure would hate to be that person then.


	16. Chapter 16

It seemed like it had been years since the beginning of the apocalypse. Everyone was acting like it had always been this way. Everything seemed the same to the survivors. There was still drama, romance, "crime", violence, and many other things. The only thing that was different was the zombies and it was getting easier to kill them. As the group worked their way towards wherever the next evac station was, the gurgles and growls of zombies could be heard in the distance. Some of those zombies could be someone they use to know. A friend, a sibling, a parent, or even someone they hated. Eric had decided to drive now that Jason was gone.

Mitch was in the passenger, fast asleep with his glasses half way on his face. Jackie, Esteban, and Dave shared the back seats. Esteban and Jackie had continued their relationship but with more romance than friendship. The others felt like third wheels sometime since Jackie was the only female and she was taken. That bothered Mitch the most since he hated not being noticed by a woman. Eric could care less thinking that love would distract them from surviving, and Dave was confused but happy for them.

"Are we there yet?" Dave wined.

Eric shook his head as he snorted.

"You really are a child at heart."

"I guess we should have listened to Mark then." Jackie mumbled.

Suddenly Eric yelled and slammed on the breaks a little too late as a man's body collided with the front end of the truck. Mitch screamed as he woke up and Jackie jumped towards Esteban who really didn't care since it was a zombie. Right?

Eric jumped out of the truck and ran to see what or who he hit. The body groaned in pain as it stood up slowly.

"Jeez, I know I can be an ass but do you really have to try an' kill me?" Mark complained.

"Oh my God, Mark. How did you survive?" Eric asked.

"Dude, I don't even know how I got to this side of town or wherever I am, so don't ask me stupid questions."

"Very funny, now get in the truck."

Mark limped around the truck and cursed when he saw he would have to sit in the trunk again. He also cursed when he saw that not everyone was there.

"Hey now Ah'm not the only one who has been hit by a car." Dave joked.

"Dude it was an accident okay." Mitch hissed as he tried to fall asleep again.

"Wow, the hick isn't the one sleeping all the time anymore. How long have I been gone?" Mark yelled.

"Long enough for people to think you were dead." Esteban said with a grin.

Mark looked at Esteban with a weird look.

"Wait, who is this guy?"

"Uhhh, he's Esteban." Jackie said slowly.

"Oh well nice to meet you"

"Are you saying that you don't remember him?" Eric asked, as he began to drive again.

"No, should I?"

Everyone looked confused until Mitch spoke up with his eyes still closed.

"I think you hit him so hard with the truck, that he forgot some things like Dave did when he got hit by a car."

Everyone seemed to agree with that theory as they all stayed quiet. Hours later, Dave was driving while Eric sat in the back. Mitch was still asleep (again) along with Jackie.

The road ahead of them was clear and to the sides were huge amounts of trees. Hidden within those trees were hundreds of infected. Fighting those infected was a group of four survivors. One female and thee males. The woman was wearing a pink Depeche Mode T-shirt, with her skin being dark but not as dark as the, ex-football coaching, 44 year old man who led the way. Behind them was a man in an all-white suit with a blue shirt underneath and a younger man with a yellow Bullshifters shirt and a hat with a tow truck on the front.

They had seen the car and were trying to chase after it. Sadly the infected seemed to be in a bad mood today, so no one was leaving without a fight. A Tank charged out of the trees and went after the truck.

"Shit, we better help them." Said the woman.

"How are we going to help them, when we are about to die? Tell me how you plan on doing that, Rochelle." Growled the man in white.

The four ran after the Tank/truck after throwing a pipe bomb. The flashing red light of the bomb distracted the zombies long enough for the survivors to run before it exploded and killed them with the zombies.

Down the road laid a dead Tank and a flipped over truck. Someone was coughing and others were groaning.

"Man, who knew that a Tank could flip over cars?" said Eric.

"Well, Ah guess there ain't nothin' that they can't do." Dave mumbled.

Footsteps were heard walking towards them. Automatically they assumed that it was more zombies, but when four people walked around the truck, they were showered with relief.

Dave stood up and ran to pull Mitch out of the truck since he was freaking out about how he thinks he sees a spider.

"Hello, my names Eric."

"Friends call me Coach." Said the older man.

"My name is Rochelle." Chimed in the female.

"Folks call me Ellis." Waved the youngest.

"Names Nick, but don't bother learning it cause I ain't sticking around much longer." Said the last member of the newcomers.

Eric looked at Nick for a second but then shrugged his shoulders when he heard Dave return.

"Hey ya'll. Ah'm Dave."

Ellis' eyes widened at the same time Dave's did. The two ran at each other and hugged like there was no tomorrow.

"Dave holy shit it's you!"

"Ah know it's me!"

"Great, now there's two." Nick mumbled.

Mitch walked over and stood next to Nick for a second. Eric tried not to laugh because they look so alike. Their hair was the same style and they were both dressed in nice clothes.

"I don't think I like this guy's face." Mitch said glaring a Nick.

"Really?" Nick raised his voice a bit."

"Cause he looks like an asshole." Mitch said with more anger.

Dave could tell that Nick and Mitch were going to get along since they were so similar. Just like Ellis and Dave.

Mitch and Nick argued while everyone enjoyed the show and that they survived for another day.


	17. Chapter 17

The trip on the bridge would be easy they said. All they needed to do was get to the helicopter they said. What the newer group of four didn't say was that the military would be bombing the bridge to keep the zombies away from the evac station.

"Shit, Charger!" Jackie yelled as said infected charged at Coach.

Weeks had gone by since the original team of survivors met the other four. Together they had fought through a carnival, swamp, and a small town that became flooded thanks to the downpour of rain. But every place had more zombies than the last. Including the bridge

As the survivors ran across the bridge, infected would do everything in their power to make the non-infected fall to their watery grave that was below them. Jockeys would try and steer someone over the edge. A Smoker would drag someone else towards the edge. Every zombie did something that would push the group over the edge but it would deprive them of their food. So either way, the zombie would die of starvation since they survivors were not letting the zombies eat them. No matter how tired and hurt they were.

"Why couldn't we just have stayed at Willow's house?" Eric growled.

"Because you would've died there." Jackie said.

Mitch was getting his ass handed to him by another Charger and Dave was hitting said infected with a frying pan in the back of the head. It had little effect but soon the zombie died, releasing Mitch from its death grip. Nick and Esteban were back to back, fighting of a small horde with guns that were out of ammo. Mark was running around with Ellis next to him as they hit zombies in the head with baseball bats.

With a larger group it made fighting the zombies seem easier and less scary. The only scary thing was the bombs that would almost hit the survivors with every step they took.

"Okay we're half way there guys." Mitch yelled over his shoulder.

Rochelle let out a cry in pain as a Hunter tackled her. Before it could do too much damage to her organs Coach kicked it off of her and he then hit it with his gun, causing it to fall of the bridge. Dave whooped with joy when he saw the helicopter in the distance. They were a third of the way there.

Just as everyone's hopes grew a Tank ran at them from the way they came from. It threw cars at the survivors and it even threw parts of the bridge, along with some zombies. Eric looked around for anything to kill the Tank. Inside of an abandoned truck was a random grenade launcher. He ran to pick it up and he turned to face the Tank.

One shot to the head and the big blob of dead muscle was no longer trying to smack Nick like a fly.

"Come on ya'll! The whirly birds' this way!" Ellis yelled, as Nick screamed at him for calling a helicopter a whirly bird…. again.

Within ten minutes or so the group was at the helicopter. First Coach got on followed by Rochelle. As Ellis was about to get on he heard a Smoker attack someone. He turned around to see Nick being strangled by said infected with the others trying to save him. Once they saved him, Nick and Ellis got on the helicopter. Just as the others were about to get on, another bomb fell from the sky and blew their path away. All they could see was smoke and the helicopter flying away with four survivors that the barely knew.

Mark sat down and sighed and this was the first time Mitch broke down during the apocalypse. As he stood there and cried Jackie hugged Esteban and Dave stared after the helicopter that was carrying one of his old friends away.

"Lucky…" he whispered.

Hours later, the old group was off the bridge and in a new safe house. There wasn't much food inside there so everyone grew a little more upset. Mitch ran upstairs to go to bed and Jackie sat on the old, broken couch. Esteban went to the kitchen and Mark went outside for watch. Eric paced across the living room while Dave watched.

"Is this gonna be our life forever?" Jackie asked.

"Probably…" said a new voice.

The three in the room looked up to see a man about the same age as them standing in a doorway. He was a mix of black and white and before anyone could conclude anything else Jackie ran over to him.

"Half-rican!"

"Hey Jackie, how you doing?" asked Jackie's friend.

"Well I have been killing zombies for months, how do you think I'm doing?"

"Hmmm, good point."

Eric cleared his throat which startled Dave a bit.

"Oh, guys this is my friend Matthew."

"There are a lot of people with "m" names here." Dave blurted out.

Eric glared at Dave. Matthew laughed and Jackie smiled while rolling her eyes.

"Well, I am Eric." Eric shook Matthew's hand as he introduced himself.

"Ah'm Dave! Some people call me David though so if ya want ya can call me David or whatever ya wanna call me."

Matthew laughed again as Mitch came downstairs.

"Okay, who's the dude with the moustache and the afro?"

"I am Matthew."

"Hmm, my names Mitch, so better remember it cause I am the king of all these ass-shits."

"Mitch, what the heck man." Jackie hissed.

"It's my new favorite word…. ass-shit."

Eric smacked his forehead and Dave smiled.

Later, Matthew had met everyone and they welcomed him just as easily has he did them. It turns out that Matthew was surviving in the basement with plenty of guns and food. Soon they all found out that his last name was Swift and that he used to sell drugs. Jackie smacked him for being a bad influence on children like Dave and Mitch. The group continued to tell stories until the sun was completely gone. One by one each survivor fell asleep, each of them dreaming good dreams for what felt like the first time in their life.


	18. Chapter 18

"So did everyone that became a Hunter jus' decide ta wear blue hoodies on the same day? Ah mean every Hunter is the same, every Charger is the same. They even have the same overalls on them. How did they do it?"

"Dave, be quiet." Mark grumbled.

"But Ah'm so bored."

"Hey Dave, wanna play some video games?" Matthew asked.

"Wait you have power?" Mark asked.

Matthew nodded, while Dave jumped over towards the xbox360.

"Let's play some zombie games." Dave cheered.

"We are already in a zombie game of our own." Eric said.

Before anyone could say anything else Mitch bursted out crying. Everyone looked at him without saying a word as he talked through tears about how he is just upset and tried and forever alone.

Just then, a voice yelled from upstairs.

"Hello? Anyone here? We saw lights so we thought people were here." The voice belonged to a girl.

A new voice joined in.

"Jewelle, be quiet maybe they left or they don't want to take care of more people." That time it was a guy's voice.

"They sound young." Jackie whispered.

"So let's help them" Esteban mumbled.

Upstairs the two teenagers were about to leave when Jackie came up behind them.

"Who are you?" she asked the two.

"I am Logan and this is my girlfriend, Jewelle." said the boy who looked to be 16 years old.

Jackie looked at the two with a serious look on her face. Before she could say anything to them Eric came upstairs to see if she was okay.

"Whoa, they're just kids." he whispered.

"We aren't kids, we were in high school." Jewelle said.

"Well you're still young so technically you are a kid." Jackie said slowly.

Jewelle rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Okay listen here young lady…" Jackie started to say but she was interrupted by Eric's laughter.

"Wow, okay you sound like the girl's mother."

Logan laughed but soon stopped when Jackie gave him a death glare.

"Okay then, why don't you two join our group?" Eric asked.

"Wait there are others?" Logan asked.

Eric nodded and motioned them to follow him into the basement,

In the basement there was Dave and Matthew, playing video games, along with Mitch and Mark who were sitting at the table arguing again. On the small couch was Esteban who was asleep.

"Hell yea! Ah jus' kicked ya but!" Dave yelled into Matthew's face.

"Uhhh Dave, I'm on the right side of the screen. So I won."

"….. Oh."

The two laughed as they started a new game followed by more yelling of who was going to win this time.

On the other side of the room, Mark and Mitch were sitting at the small table arguing about who was the best zombie killer.

"Well for a while, I survived by myself until I found Dave, Eric, and Willow." Mitch said.

"So did I, and then I met you guys and after that I left so I was alone again. Also when I came back you guys hit me with a car so you're argument is invalid."

"Well, how many times have I saved your ass?"

"Not nearly as many times as I have just from saving you from all those Chargers."

Jewelle and Logan glanced at each other with confused looks.

"Welcome to the family." Eric muttered.

Matthew and Dave paused their game and walked over. They both had huge grins on their faces.

"Hi, I'm Matthew."

"Ah'm Dave or ya'll can call me David if ya want."

Logan stepped forward and shook their hands with a smile.

"I'm Logan, nice to meet you guys."

Behind him, Jewelle waved with a small smile.

"Hello, I'm Jewelle."

"How are ya'll alive, cause ya'll jus' kids and what not." Dave asked.

"Again we are not kids but I've played my fair share of zombie video games so I guess I was prepared." Jewelle informed.

Matthew and Dave smiled at each other.

"You wanna play some games with us?" Matthew asked with Dave jumping with excitement next to him.

"Uh, I would but I think it would be best if we got some food and some sleep first, right Logan?"

Jewelle turned around to see that Logan wasn't behind her anymore. When she looked around she saw that he was now sitting in front of the TV with Dave and Matthew, controller in hand, playing video games.

"Figures…"

"Well since you've met those two, over at the table are Mitch and Mark. Mitch is the one with the glasses by the way." Eric told Jewelle.

"Also the one on the couch is my boyfriend, Esteban." Jackie added.

"Okay well thank you for letting Logan and I stay here and also you never told me your name," Jewelle said pointing at Eric.

"Oh sorry, I am Eric."

Jewelle smiled and then waved goodbye as Jackie showed her where she could sleep and where the food was at.

Eric walked over to see what game the guys were playing now.

On the screen was a horde of zombies surrounding Dave as Matthew and Logan tried to save him with grenades and pistols.

"The video games don't seem to capture the horror of zombies anymore." Eric mumbled.

"Yea that's true, but I guess nothing does once you've been through all of this shit." Matthew mumbled.

Over at the table they could hear Mitch yelling, "Ass-shit" and Mark throwing something across the room.

"Do they always fight?" Logan asked while still staring at the TV.

"Do Ah suck at video games?" Dave asked with a smile.

Eric, Logan, and Matthew all said, "Yes" at the same time.

"Then there's ya answer."

As the day ended no one mentioned that the amount of food was near zero. No one said anything about the zombies. No one asked about when they would have to leave again. No one thought about tomorrow, because today felt like a normal day. One without real zombies. Just a day where everyone was together and happy. Today was treated as if it was their last day, and when in the zombie apocalypse, that day could be today.


	19. Chapter 19

"What do you mean we're out of food?!" Mitch yelled at Logan.

"Okay dude, stop yelling, all we need to do is get more food and supplies from the store down the road." Logan rolled his eyes while he talked.

"Wait there's a store around here?" Eric asked.

"Yea we were camping out in there for a day before we saw the lights coming from this house." Jewelle informed as she moved her dark brown hair out of her face. With her hair out of her face her blue eyes were very noticeable and when those eyes caught Logan staring, she blushed.

"Okay, who wants ta go git the supplies?" Dave asked.

"I'll go, I feel like I've been doing nothing for days." Esteban chimed in. Jackie noticed that his black hair was way longer than when they met and he was starting to grow a beard as well. He also looked skinnier from the lack of food and the amount of running that they had done over time.

"I can go." Logan offered.

"I'm going too." Mark cried from the other side of the room.

"There is no way ya'll are leavin me here!" Dave cheered.

Jewelle ran over with two pistols in hand and a crowbar on her back. "I'm not letting a bunch of guys go by themselves." She smirked.

All the guys began to protest loudly. In response the girls glared at them.

"Look J we don't need a little girl to help us." Mitch said, ignoring Jewelle's look when he called her J.

Jewelle looked at Logan so he would defend her, but all he did was look at her sadly. She looked back with confusion in her eyes until he walked towards her. Logan was taller the Jewelle so when he looked down at her his short-ish brown hair would fall in front of his eyes.

"Listen, I don't want anything to happen to you, so please stay here Boo."

Dave smiled at the nickname, while Mark pretended to gag himself. Jackie glared at him.

Jewelle sighed and finally nodded.

After the guys got their weapons ready, everyone wished them luck, followed by Esteban walking up to Jackie and kissing her, which caused Mark to make a barfing sound. He made the sounds louder when Jewelle kissed Logan ad hugged him. Both Jewelle and Jackie smacked him, which caused Mitch and Dave to laugh.

The guys who were leaving turned to go out the door and with one last glance over their shoulders, the left, leaving Mitch, Jackie, Eric, Matthew, and Jewelle alone in the sad silence.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

After a quick and quiet walk the four guys made it to the store that hopefully had food.

"So what's the plan?" Mark asked, with an un-amused look on his face.

Just as Esteban was about to say something, they heard noises inside of the store through a broken window. All of them prayed that it wasn't zombies, but if it wasn't an infected that made that noise then what did?

Slowly, Logan looked over the bottom of the window, and he couldn't believe what he saw. Inside was a group of ten or more people. Not zombie people, people people. It was obvious that there was a leader, for he must be the guy telling everyone what to do.

The leader had on a blood stained, white tank top. His arms were covered in tattoos, and he had short red hair. There was a female next to him who was wearing what looked like a spy's outfit. Her whole outfit was leather and she had a belt on that was holding pistols and knives on her hips. Her boots were covered in blood, along with her face, and her long blonde hair, that had blood in it, was pulled up into a high ponytail.

By the looks of it this group was taking all the food and supplies. Logan also noticed that in the corner they were burning whatever they didn't need.

"Survival of the fittest." The leader laughed, as he watched food and other supplies burn. The female joined in on his laughing and so did a few other members of the group.

Logan sat back down next to his teammates.

"I think we should look for supplies somewhere else guys."

"What why?" Dave asked.

"These guys are like mega assholes."

"So what, I'm an asshole and you guys are still helping me live." Mark said.

Honestly, Mark had a point, but before anyone could even blink, the sound of a gun being drawn was heard from the window.

All four guys snapped their heads up to see who had found them.

"Hey Rex, we got some of zombie bait." The blonde female that Logan had seen said while pointing her pistols at them.

The leader, now known as Rex, walked over with a gun in his hand too.

"Perfect, we were running low on bait. Good work Natalia."

The four guys all had a look of panic on their faces, and with no way of running away without getting shot, they all sat there frozen with fear as another member of this demon group brought rope and duct tape over to Rex.

Before anything else happened, the girl Natalia knocked them all out with her pistols, causing all of them, one by one, to fall into deep sleep that might possibly be their last.

As Esteban fell into unconsciousness, he thought of Jackie and how crushed she would be if he died. At the same time Logan thought the same about Jewelle and about how he wished he could see her again, before they all die.

Even though all the guys we knocked out, they all were remembering their new life in the apocalypse. Surprisingly it was better than the lives they had. If the infection never happened, they would have never met each other and the greatest family would have never been created and even though they were possibly hours from joining the undead army, the all realized that the zombies were supposed to happen so that they could have a family that they all loved.


	20. Chapter 20

-Matthew's house-

Eric was walking back and forth, once again, through the whole basement. He started doing this, two hours after Dave, Mark, Esteban, and Logan left to go down the street to get food and other supplies.

"They should be back by now. I think we should go out to find them." Jackie said.

Eric shook his head, "No, I have an idea that might be safer."

Eric walked into the small kitchen that was in the basement, and that is where he found Jewelle, who was looking at a necklace that was obviously from Logan. She sighed then jumped when Eric cleared his throat.

"Oh hey, I didn't see you. Are the guys here yet?"

Eric shook his head, and sadness swept over him when he saw the disappointment on Jewelle's face.

"Jewelle I need to know if that store was over run at all." Eric asked. If it wasn't, then maybe something else got them.

"Well not really. Ya know what I think the whole area was pretty safe as well."

"Crap then maybe they weren't attacked but infected. "Eric hissed angrily.

"Why is that bad Eric?"

"If zombies didn't get them then what did?"

-Store-

Esteban's eyes blinked open slowly. All he knew was that his head hurt really badly and that they were still at the store. As he tried to move his arms he realized that they were tied behind his back.

"What the hell?" he tried to say but all he heard was muffled noises for his mouth was taped shut with duct tape.

At that moment Dave woke up as well. He tried to move his arms too, but he had no luck.

Eventually all four guys were awake and sadly tied up with duct tape over their mouths.

A few minutes passed and the man Rex walked into the room that they were in. He had a baseball bat with him. It was covered in blood just like him.

"So fellas, I hope you enjoyed your little stay but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." Rex said with a smirk.

All four guys' faces lit up with hope until Rex laughed. His smirk turned into a full on insane smile.

"The only way you get to leave though is through death."

One by one Rex ripped the tape off their mouths leaving red marks on their faces. Each guy hissed in pain.

"Listen we don't want any trouble, just let us go back where we came from and you'll never see us again." Esteban said,

What happen next scared everyone but Rex.

Rex swung the bat right at Esteban's head and all that was heard was the loud crack. After Esteban recovered from the blow, he felt a bad bruise that was starting to form on his left temple.

"You wanna talk to me again?" Rex asked.

"Whoa, come on man, we ain't tryin' ta take control er nothin'. We jus' wanna go back to the rest of our group." Dave said slightly terrified of what's going to happen to him now.

Rex looked at Dave for a good few seconds before he swung the bat right at Dave's right cheek. Blood and one tooth flew from his mouth.

"I hate it when a hick even speaks to anyone." Rex said, and then spat at Dave feet in disgust.

Then a thought came to Rex, one so evil that he started to laugh.

"Go back to the rest of your group? There are others?"

"No!" Mark yelled.

Rex kicked Mark right in the gut.

"Tell me about the others." Rex ordered.

"Hell no." Mark hissed.

That comment earned a punch right in the center of his face. Blood poured from Mark's nose, but it wasn't as bad as the amount of blood from Dave's mouth.

Rex looked over at Logan who was trying to stay quiet and avoid eye contact with Rex.

"You, why don't you tell me about the others?" Rex asked with a sly tone.

Logan kept quiet, but fear was on his face and in his eyes. Soon he was shaking with fear so badly that he was having trouble sitting up without falling.

Rex walked over to Logan and crouched in front of him. When he saw that Logan was avoiding eye contact, Rex grabbed him by his throat. As Logan tried to kick his self free the others could only watch in fear.

Rex's face was so serious it was as if he has done this before, even before the infection broke out.

"Someone better tell me about your friends or I kill you one by one with my bare hands." Rex threatened.

When Rex looked over at the others, Logan managed to kick him between the legs without even trying. Rex's gripped ended and Logan could breathe again. After Rex was done howling in pain he glared at all four of them and stormed out of the room for some reason.

"Shit guys I'm sorry. Now we're gonna die sooner." Logan whispered.

Dave spat out blood before he spoke.

"Listen, it ain't all yer fault. Ah mean we wouldn' shut up so we are all ta blame."

"Dude he kicked him in the fucking crotch, that's worse than talking." Mark yelled.

"Dude, just calm down." Esteban mumbled. With so much movement going on and his recent head injury, everything looked weird and he felt like he was drunk but with the hangover first.

The door swung open and this time the girl Natalia walked in.

"Hello boys, which one of you kicked my man?" she asked with an evil grin.

No one said anything but by the look in their eyes and the way Logan was shaking, she could tell who did it.

Natalia leaned in front of Logan, and she made sure that her hair wasn't blocking her chest. Mark mentally called her a whore for flirting with her prisoners.

"You have some nerve you know that kid?" she said to Logan as she moved closer.

Her face was right in front of his so there was no possible way he couldn't make eye contact with her. Even though he didn't want to, but it's better than her trying to make him look at her chest.

Dave tried to look away when Natalia tried to put her hands on Logan's chest, but Logan already began to kick at her and this time his face didn't show fear, it showed anger and disgust.

"Aww, what's wrong little boy doesn't like being touched?" Natalia asked.

This time, the guys were surprised when she kissed Logan, but it wasn't for long because he was going with is instincts of kicking everytime anyone touched him.

This time he kicked her right in the gut, and that's what ended the forced kiss. Natalia fell straight onto her butt.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked.

"A fucking bitch is trying to molest me!" Logan growled.

"Well it's only fair, if my man can't be satisfying enough because of you, then what will I do?"

"See I knew it, she's a fucking whore." Mark yelled.

As Natalia tried to get up to hit Mark, Logan kicked her again and she tripped and fell on her stomach, which allowed Esteban to pin her down with his legs.

"Dave quick on her belt she has a knife." Mark said.

Dave scooted over to her backwards and took the knife, and then he began to cut through the ropes on his wrists. Once he was free he helped free the other.

"Get off of me!" Natalia yelled

Logan grabbed all the pieces of rope, and they began tying her up as tight as they could. Before the left, Mark took all of her weapons and Logan whispered on last thing to her before they snuck out the door.

"I have a girlfriend, you bitch."


	21. Chapter 21

"Come on Eric! Let's just go down to the store and see if they are okay!" Mitch yelled.

"No, it's too dangerous." Eric said.

"That doesn't mean we leave them out there to die!" Matthew cried.

Eric sighed. He was losing is place as leader because people didn't exactly agree with his choices that would keep people safe. Why don't people ever listen to him? First Bree didn't listen when he told her not to leave her window open. Then Zero when Eric told him to stop being an ass, and then Willow when he told her all the time to stop being so dramatic with being with men. He told her that her true love would come but she wanted it quickly and she didn't want to wait. For once he wanted someone to listen to him.

"Listen Eric, I like you, but my brother is out there. I need to help him." Mitch pleaded.

"Well what about Logan? I mean what if he needs help?" Jewelle asked.

"Don't tell me you forgot Esteban." Jackie hissed.

"Wait what about Mark?" Matthew asked.

Eric just kept trying to calm them down, but nothing would calm them down after the felt the ground shake and heard a huge explosion from down the road.

One after another they all ran outside and saw at the end of the road, the store, engulfed in flames. People could be heard screaming. Of course, the group assumed it was Esteban, Logan, Dave, and Mark.

Jackie and Jewelle started to cry when they realized that their loved ones were gone and the other stared at the flames in the distance. One word slipped from Mitch's lips.

"…..David?"

-Twenty minutes earlier-

Back at the store, the guys were sneaking behind shelves and counters, to make sure no one saw them escaping. Rex was nowhere to be seen and Natalia was still tied up.

After the whole scene with Natalia, Logan was a bit shaken up. He felt gross for kissing another girl, even though he was basically forced to.

The blood from Marks nose would stop then start again and the bruise on Esteban's head had swollen his left eye shut. Dave was still spitting out mouthfuls of blood, and his gums felt weird now since he lost a tooth.

"Wait we need food." Mark whispered.

"Shit we do." Esteban said with fear in his voice.

All of them hurt all over. Maybe when they were knocked out, Rex's clan beat the up badly, but they didn't have time to see why they were in pain. They could do that back at the house, after they got the food.

"Guys, I have idea." Logan whispered.

Quietly Logan told them his plan, and they all agreed with him immediately. After they went through what was going to happen, or hopefully happen, one more time each one of them took a knife that they took from Natalia, and split up to each corner of the room.

Mark was at the corner with the fire. Not a single minion of Rex was over there at the time, which was perfect. Next to the fire was a can of gasoline that was being used to keep the fire going. Mark picked it up and hid behind a counter again. Logan was over by a group of Rex's followers. Each one had their backs facing Logan, so he was able sneak behind them over to a door that said employees only.

Inside of that room, there was not a person in site, so Logan turned on the light and went over to the desk in the middle of the room to find his and the others weapons. On the desk was the baseball bat that Rex had when he nearly killed them. Logan's neck felt sore at the thought of Rex strangling him. There was a red mark around his throat that was very noticeable. It was shaped like a hand.

Next to the desk were all of the weapons that were taken. Just as he was about to take them and leave, the door began to open. So Logan hid under the desk and of course it was Rex who walked in. He still looked pissed off and insane as much as he was before.

"Fucking piece of shit thinks he can kick me." Rex growled.

Just as Rex was about to sit on the desk, he could sense that something was different. Then he remembered that when he left the office, he turned the light off. He smiled a wicked smile.

"So, the kid thinks he is just gonna leave."

Rex spun on his heel to face the desk.

"Come on you shit, why are you hiding?"

Logan stood up from behind the desk with the bat in his hand. His face showed he was scared at all.

"Oh, take my bat when I'm not looking. I see how it is. I guess I'll just take this." Rex laughed as he picked up one of Logan's pistols.

Logan swung the bat knocking the gun out of Rex's hand, and before Rex could react, Logan was running at him and trying to hit him with the bat.

Back in the main room, the others managed to get the followers to surrender or run away. Some 'tough' tem Rex had here.

Just then Logan ran out of the small office, bat in hand, with Rex right behind him. But before, he could get to the others; Rex dived forward and grabbed Logan's leg causing him to fall forward and drop the bat.

Rex stood up and pulled Logan up so he could wrap his arm around his neck, choking him again.

"Now, get back in your cage or I kill him." Rex ordered as he pulled out a pistol, and aimed it a Logan's head.

All the guys protested and tried to walk forward but Rex put his finger on the trigger of the gun and they stopped talking and moving.

Rex began to laugh his evil laugh, and it gave Logan the perfect chance to kick his crotch again and run off.

While Rex freaked out again Dave threw the can of gasoline Mark found into the fire, and the all sprinted out the front door. Before Rex could react, the flames grew and burned everything around him.

Outside the guys kept running until they were far away enough from the building before it exploded. Glass flew everywhere around them and in their backs. The only other damage was Mark was closer to the building than the others were, and the loudness of the explosion made it hard to hear out of his right ear.

"Ah can't believe we made it out of there." Dave panted.

"Well at least we have food." Esteban said has he lifted up the bag of food he collected, along with other supplies.

In the distance they could see Matthew's house and a wave of relief swept over them. They all looked forward to seeing their family again, even if they were in a lot of pain.

"I hope they aren't worried about me." Mark laughed.


	22. Chapter 22

Matthew's heart was beating so loudly that he couldn't hear his new friends talking to him.

He was the only one who stayed outside after the store blew up. He, like the others, believed that some of his friends died in the explosion, until moments ago. While Matthew was outside, on watch, he couldn't help but be depressed over the believed deaths of Mark, Logan, Esteban, and Dave. He could've sworn that he could still hear their voices yelling for him to look at them.

"Matthew! Over here!"

'I must be going crazy.'

"God dammit Matthew will you look at us!"

"Holy shit, guys!" was all Matthew could say when he finally looked over to see the four, badly injured, running towards the house.

The first one to make it to the front door was Esteban. Then it was Dave who tripped on the porch stairs, who was followed by Logan, who looked ready to break down and cry. Yet the biggest surprise was when Mark ran over and hugged Matthew while trying to hide tears.

"How? What? Just. No. I don't even." Matthew said.

"We'll explain in the house." Mark said.

Downstairs in the basement everyone was either crying or staring into space with blank, pained expressions. When Matthew ran down the stairs with a smile on his face, no one looked at him, until he cleared his throat.

"No words can describe what you are about to see." He said as he moved to the side.

Jackie squealed for the first one they saw was Esteban. They both ran towards each other and hugged like there was no tomorrow. Next to react was Mitch, because Dave jumped down the stairs with a pained smile on his face. Eric couldn't help but freak out and laugh while he cried.

Logan ran down the stairs right into Jewelle's arms, and Jewelle could only cry tears of joy while they hugged. Finally Mark walked down the stairs, and when no one ran up he pouted, but laughed when Matthew pouted back with open arms waiting for a hug. Which Mark returned just to be nice for once.

Soon after the reunion, the guys relaxed while everyone tended to their wounds that were the worst. At this time they told their story. Except, nobody wanted to talk about Logan and Natalia so they skipped that part.

Later after everyone was happy again and calm, Mitch noticed that Logan looked off, even when Jewelle was next to him. So when Jewelle got up to go with Jackie on watch, Mitch decided to see what was up.

"Okay listen, I can tell something is bothering you." Mitch said after he sat next to Logan.

"Well, we almost died. I'm going to be bothered about it."

"Mhm, nice try. I can tell when you're lying."

"I'm not lying.

"Something happened and you didn't tell anyone. Tell me and I won't tell anyone."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because we're in this together and if you don't it's going to keep eating away at you until you go insane from keeping it bottled in."

'Damn, Mitch has a good point.' Logan thought.

"Alright, fine you win."

Mitch sat there with a smug look on his face.

"That girl Natalia we told you about. Well she tried to… touch me and then she….kissed me."

Logan put his face in his hands as he waited for a response.

"Is that all?" Mitch asked.

Logan looked up at him with disgust and tears in his eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Do you not see that I'm bothered by what happened, or that it makes me sick and guilty when I think about it?"

Mitch shrugged.

"You fucking asshole!"

Logan jumped up from the couch and stomped up the stairs.

"What the hell just happened?" Eric asked.

"I'm trying to teach the kid to grow up." Mitch said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"You are a fucking idiot."

Mitch glared at Eric and growled.

"They just went through the unthinkable and you want to teach the youngest one out of all of them a lesson?"

"Why is that so bad?"

"Why is that so bad? Why is that so bad? Imagine you were sixteen and all of that happened to you."

Mitch sat quietly for a minute.

"Also since he obviously said something to you and no one else, not even his girlfriend, he must have looked up to you or trusted you a lot."

Mitch looked at his hands and sighed.

"Man, I thought Mark was an ass." Eric said as he ran up the stairs to find Logan.

At that moment Dave spoke.

"Ah can hear the live audience sayin 'Ooooh'."

"Okay I get it. I messed up."

"Badly." Dave said.

"Will you shut up?"

"Probably not."

Jewelle came running down the stairs. Anger plastered on her face.

"You!" she said walking towards Mitch.

"You know what you are to me right now?"

"Handsome?" Mitch asked.

"You are the infection Mitch. Everytime something goes near you it becomes terrible. Everything you try to fix gets worse. You are dirt. I hope you enjoy what you are because I'm done with you." Jewelle said before she turned away.

Dave and Mitch stared at her in awe but jumped when she turned around and slapped Mitch across the face.

"I'm wrong, you're worse than the infection. You make me sicker than the infected."

With that being said Jewelle ran up the stairs to talk to Logan.

Mitch just sat there with his hand over his cheek. Slowly he looked at Dave.

"Can you believe her?" he asked.

"Yes. What I can't believe is, why did I ever look up to you as a kid." Dave said as he got up and went up the stairs.

Mitch looked around and saw that he was alone. Everyone at some point must have gone upstairs. Quietly he started to mumble one of his favorite songs as tears rolled down his face.

"What hurts the most, was being so close, and having so much to say, and watching you walk away…."

And at the exact moment Mitch realized that he was the asshole, not Mark. He was the problem in everyone's life. He was always the problem and he wasn't part of this family. He was the unwanted house guest that no one liked. He didn't belong here. He needed to leave. So everyone else would finally be happy.


	23. Chapter 23

"We're going to find him." Eric ordered.

"Well, have fun without me, because I don't care about him." Jewelle hissed.

"Jewelle, he's my brother, Ah can't leave him by his self with them zombies. Please help." Dave begged.

"Look Dave, I don't want to upset you but, he has-"

"Ah know what he has done and Ah don't care right now." Dave interrupted.

"How about we put it to a vote?" Eric asked.

"Everyone will say no!" Dave yelled.

"Just let me ask them to vote."

Eric gathered everyone on the couch or on chairs while he stood in the middle of the room.

"Okay Mitch has gone missing and we are all going to vote to see if we should go try to find him."

Everyone looked at one another, wondering what they were all going to say.

"All who think we should go try to find Mitch raise your hand."

Eric, Dave, Esteban, and Matthew raised their hand.

"Those who think we should leave him out there to survive on his own."

Jewelle, Logan, Mark, and Jackie raised their hand.

"God dammit, four against four." Eric mumbled.

As they all tried to change each other's mind, Mitch was somewhere in the middle of the small town where the others were originally at. He left after everyone fell asleep, and he managed to get far away without being followed by a 'teammate' or infected. He had an assault rifle, a med kit, some water and food in a bag, a pillow and blanket for when he found shelter, warm clothes, and extra ammo.

"Now they can be happy and probably survive longer." Mitch mumbled looking over his shoulder which was the direction he came from.

Up ahead, on a wall, was a random message that was written in what appeared to be blood. It said-

'Anyone looking for a safehouse follow the arrows.'

Mitch shrugged his shoulders, followed by hissing in pain. His arm still hurt from when he was attacked by a Charger back when Willow shot Dave. He tried not to move it but even then, it still would hurt.

"Yea, I deserve it." He whispered.

Every once and a while, Mitch would see a big red arrow on the ground or on a wall. He followed them until he reached what appeared to be a small mall. Slowly he walked forward towards the doors, but he was soon welcomed by a small group of people with weapons.

"Are you infected?" one of the guys asked.

"Uhhh I don't think so."

They all looked at each other and slowly lowered their guns.

"Follow us."

Inside Mitch was lead into a small office where the made sure he had no zombie bites, and they also explained that this mall was more like a small town to these people. Soon after they explained another man walked into the room. He stared at Mitch and raised an eyebrow, and then sat down at a desk.

"Welcome stranger, my name's Nate Smith. Welcome to our little home I call Solo. Yet everyone likes to call it Spotlight, why I don't know."

"Okay, I'm Mitch. Mitch Ross."

The two shook hands. Nate had a similar look as Matthew, only he looked older and taller. He also had tattoos on his arm.

"I can show you around if you'd like. Our leader is out on a supply run with some of his 'favorites'." Nate said.

"Yea that would be cool."

After a short tour of the place Nate told Mitch where he could sleep. He also began asking questions so he could give him a small job to help put the 'town'.

"Say, are there any other survivors you know about? We've been looking everywhere and it's weird since no one has been found and here you are alone."

Mitch thought about it. If he told Nate about the others, then they could be here with him again. But then again the might not want to see him. Yet if they were here, they might meet new friends or maybe see family for all he knew and they could survive easier here. After a minute he knew what to say.

"I know where my 'family' is."

"Really? We could go get them and bring them here."

Mitch told Nate where they were. He also warned them that they might not even be there anymore and they might not want to leave their home. Nate said as long as there might be people who need help out there, he doesn't care if he doesn't find them right away. The more people the better, no matter what. After that Nate ran to get a group together.

"No matter what…" Mitch mumbled.

Back at Matthew's house, Jackie changed her vote and now they were off to find Mitch. Before they could finish packing though, they heard a car drive by. They all froze in their tracks when they realized that there were more survivors outside. Then they all jumped when somebody knocked on the front door.

Eric ran over to the door and slowly opened it.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Excuse me, are you Mitch's family?" a voiced asked.

Eric opened the door wider; at the same time his eyes grew wider when the man mentioned Mitch.

"Names Nate, I met Mitch about an hour ago and he told me where to find you guys."

"Well why are you here?"

"To take you guys to our safer town I call Solo."

Eric gave him a weird look when he named the town.

"Uhhh, I'll get the others." Eric said with a little bit of excitement.

Within minutes they had everything packed and stuffed into the truck Nate drove in. In said truck was a small team of people to help if any zombies attacked.

As the drive went on, Nate talked about Solo, and the rules of it, but the others weren't listening. They were all surprised that Mitch would do something to help them survive. They were also wondering if they even wanted to see him ever again.

"So Nate, what is it like being a leader?" Logan asked.

"Oh, I'm not the leader; our leader is out on a supply run with a few others. He might be back soon though."

"What's his name?" Esteban asked.

"Rex." Nate said, without seeing the others freeze with fear.

Logan started to silently hyperventilate, but he calmed down when Jewelle held his hand. Esteban rubbed his eye that was swollen shut. Mark covered his nose, thinking it was bleeding after hearing Rex's name. Dave was messing with the gap between his teeth where a tooth use to live. Then one by one they all realized the group on the supply run that Nate mentioned was the group that Logan, Esteban, Dave, and Mark blew up.

Nate jumped when Mark punched the roof of the truck and yelled-

"ASS-SHIT!"


	24. Chapter 24

The group in the car was expecting the worst situation while they grew closer to the small 'town' and Mitch's location. The only person that kept talking was Nate. He would ask about their adventures since the beginning of the apocalypse. It was rare when someone would respond.

In the distance the mall could be seen. Around it was a fence made from cars, dumpsters, and parts of other buildings. On top of the walls people could be seen at stations where they were on watch. When Nate pulled the vehicle up to the main entrance, a man with a rifle smiled at him and opened the gate.

"Welcome back Nate." The man said. He had crazy brown hair and a large amount of facial hair on his jaw. He also had a red bandana tied around his forehead and he was noticeable taller than everyone, just like Nate.

"Thanks Don." Nate grinned as he drove forward slowly.

The group of survivors was surprised when the mall looked like a small town that was perfect. It looked like there wasn't even an apocalypse going on around them.

One by one they got out of the car, and looked around. They soon began to think that this was going to be a better situation than everything they've gone through that was good.

As their thoughts went wild, a short girl, with short black hair walked up to them. She looked interesting with her black leggings with baggy shorts over them. Her shirt was loose, which revealed her black tank top underneath. On her feet were blood stained boots covered in spikes.

"Hello, I'm Chelsea, I'm going to show you where you guys can sleep and eat." She said.

The group followed Chelsea to a hallway with rooms. Each person was given a room, and new clothes. After Chelsea gave them the full tour, she left them to explore alone.

First they all took a shower, since this place had water, and did whatever else was needed before they got into their new clothes. Soon after they split up to find something to do, while they looked for Mitch.

Dave and Matthew found a small arcade and made it their goal to get a high score on every game. Eric and Mark went to the food court and ate as much as they could. Jackie and Esteban decided to go meet new people, and Jewelle and Logan found a place to listen to music.

Hours went by before everyone could hear Dave screaming.

"HOLY SHIT MITCH! WHY DID YA RUN OFF?"

Before Mitch could answer, he was crushed by Dave and his hug that was as strong as a Smoker's tongue, when it grabbed you.

"David, I can't breathe." Mitch gasped.

Matthew laughed when Dave moved away and tried to stay quite. The silence didn't last long.

"Oh my God, Ah should kill yew right now. Why ya gotta get up an' leave us withou' sayin' nothin'?"

"Well I left because… dude did your accent get heavier?" Mitch asked.

Matthew nodded with wide eyes that said 'Dear lord yes' while Dave shrugged his shoulders.

"Anyways, I left so that I wouldn't fuck everything up anymore. You guys make the perfect family and I just tear it apart by trying to seem like I'm some badass who isn't afraid."

"But Mitch, yew are a badass. Nothin' can kill yew, an' nothin' scares yew."

"Well I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm terrified."

"That doesn't matter Mitch. You are still part of our family." Matthew joined in.

Mitch shook his head.

"You are the only two who think that."

Dave pouted when Mitch looked defeated for once.

"Mitch listen, yew are an ass, but yew are still my brother an' Ah'm sorry Ah said Ah don't know why Ah ever looked up to ya."

Mitch slowly looked up at his brother. Before a single syllable could leave his lips, Eric and mark ran up to them.

They were all surprised when Eric hugged Mitch.

"Whoa, I don't roll like that Eric." Mitch said.

Eric backed away with a glare and a slight blush as everyone laughed.

"I never said I did, it's just your part of the family and my best friend."

"Then why are you blushing?" Mark grinned.

Eric punched his arm with barely any force. A redder blush grew on his face.

"Because you guys are making fun of me."

After they were done embarrassing Eric, the guys went to find the others.

After Mitch apologized to everyone, but mostly to Logan, he waited to see if he was forgiven.

Everyone but Jewelle forgave him.

As the group rejoiced they couldn't believe that they were safe. It was also weird since everyone looked like they never seen an infected since they all had clean clothes and their faces looked normal again, same with everyone's hair. It was weird seeing what everyone looked like before the infection swept the world. Everyone looked younger, happier, and healthier. Everything looked perfect.

Yet just like always, something had to Boomer all over their happiness.

The man known as Don came running through the building, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"REX IS DEAD! REX IS DEAD!"

Terror swept over the survivors faces.

"Why can't we ever enjoy the good things that happen to us?" Esteban mumbled.

"You mean, why can't we ever have a good thing that happens to us?" Logan growled.

They all stared at Don as he ran to find Nate.

"Why does it have to be us?" Mark asked.

Dave slammed his face onto the table they were at.

"Why can't this jus' be over?" he groaned.

"Well maybe they won't really care if he's dead." Jackie said.

Just then everyone that was under Rex's rule ran around in a panic, destroying everything in the mall.

"I think they care." Jewelle mumbled.

"Yes Jewelle, I know. I know." Jackie said as she pinched the bridge of her nose and then sighed.

"Well why are we still sitting here, we need to blend so we don't look suspicious." Mitch said.

"Okay that sounds easy 'nough." Dave said as he stood up and flipped the table over.

"I wanna try!" Matthew yelled as he ran to a different table.

"Okay with these two, we are gonna die." Esteban said.

No body verbally disagreed with him.


End file.
